Chief Executive John Lee led a delegation on a visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates two years ago. The trip had a significant impact on a member of the delegation who subsequently began doing business in the Middle East region.
Public transport company Chairman Cliff Zhang said that just a few months after joining the Chief Executive’s delegation in early 2023, his firm had already supplied three hydrogen buses to Abu Dhabi by November.
“The three hydrogen buses consist of a double-decker, a single-decker and a coach. We are continuously working very closely with the Integrated Transport Centre, which is the Transport Department equivalent in Abu Dhabi, to continue to work with them and collaborate on their green bus programme. And we expect that after the trial is finished later this year, then there will be an official launch of a bigger green bus programme.”
The Chief Executive will lead a delegation to Qatar and Kuwait and Mr Zhang will once again be part of the delegation.
He has high expectations for the upcoming trip, which he believes will be beneficial and valuable for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in seeking new markets for Hong Kong businesses.
The aim of the Chief Executive’s trip is to further cement the message that Hong Kong stands ready to do business with nations in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and that support for such endeavours comes from the Hong Kong SAR Government directly, Mr Zhang stated.
“I think the utmost significance is really to deliver that message, that Hong Kong is serious and very keen in terms of continuing to deepen the ties and collaboration with the region.
“Thanks to the Chief Executive’s invitation for us to be on that first trip, I think it certainly opened a lot of doors, but I think at the same time, it is really up to each of the enterprises and businesses to go back and to visit, and to try to do business and to have something being signed and delivered.
“We now have a lot of business partners and a lot of collaboration ongoing in the region with different countries and different parties.”
