Cover Story – Mapping Out a Business Plan

[Sponsored article] Two leading local businessmen who saw, firsthand, the opening up of the Mainland’s own economy, share their take on the OBOR initiative.

Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs, businesses and government agencies will surely play a key role when it comes to turning President Xi’s OBOR vision into a plan of action.

In determining the nature of their involvement, these local players will first need to make a number of assessments. What are the preconditions for investment in OBOR countries? In which countries are these investments first likely to bear fruit? What initial groundwork and research needs to be done?

Two businessmen with the knowledge and experience to offer answers to these, and a myriad of other questions that are likely to be raised, are Dr Vincent Lo, Chairman of both property developers Shui On Land and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), and Dr Hans Michael Jebsen, Chairman of the family-owned trading group Jebsen and Co, and a member of the Hong Kong European Union Business Co-operation Committee for HKTDC. Both are also members of the HKUST Business School Advisory Council.

They have business interests within and beyond Hong Kong, as well as experience of setting up in a developing economy- primarily Mainland China of the 1970s and 80s. And both are enthusiastic about the prospects for the OBOR initiative.

“I see One Belt, One Road as such a tremendous opportunity for Hong Kong and for the world,” Dr Lo explains. “With the 65 countries home to 60 per cent of the world’s population, but currently only generating 30 per cent of global GDP, there is a lot of upside.”

Dr Jebsen notes that an OBOR goal is to open up the free flow of trade. “This is a positive thing whether in this, or in any other, part of the world.”