Global Prosperity Summit 2025 highlights Hong Kong's ‘superconnector' role
Hong Kong is a global city and should not undersell itself or spend too much time worrying about its place in the world, not realising its extraordinary assets, according to Sherard Cowper-Coles, chairman of the China-Britain Business Council and a panellist at the Global Prosperity Summit 2025.
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At the panel discussion on 'Hong Kong's Bridging Role in a Changing World', Cowper-Coles emphasised the need for Hong Kong to recognise its 'remarkable' position as an important trading centre, noting that 70 per cent of the foreign direct investment coming out of China went through the city, and 60 per cent of China's incoming investment came through it. The volume of trade that Britain conducted with Hong Kong was comparable to that with Japan, he added.
'I have always thought that Hong Kong undersells itself,' Cowper-Coles said, adding that 'you just have to come to Hong Kong to see for yourself that those who say Hong Kong is just another Chinese city are so wrong. It is a Chinese city, but it is special and different. It's also an international city, a Western city, a global city.'
The former British diplomat went on to highlight the city's advantages, particularly its openness, connectivity and hospitality. 'Maximising the openness is the way you are going, and you must go,' he said.
Panellist Sherard Cowper-Coles addresses the summit's 'Hong Kong's Bridging Role in a Changing World' session.
Cowper-Coles' view was echoed by co-panellist Craig Allen, former president of the US-China Business Council and senior counsellor at The Cohen Group. 'Hong Kong's strengths are indeed undergirded by the economic openness and free trade spirit of this great city,' he said. 'It is that openness, it is that willingness to trade with everyone, that welcoming spirit to everyone, that gives Hong Kong its real distinctive strengths.
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