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Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s chairman outlines vision to realign its global network of 51 offices to support businesses amid trade war

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) will form a “strategic alliance” with the Bank of China (BOC) to get mainland Chinese companies to rely on the city as a “superconnector” as they venture overseas, its new chairman, Frederick Ma Si-hang, has said.

The council’s new task would be part of an expansion of its role in response to continuing geopolitical tensions, he told the Post in an exclusive interview last week.

As Ma outlined his vision to realign the statutory body’s global network of 51 offices to support businesses as they navigated the ongoing trade war initiated by Washington, he stressed that threats from American lawmakers to close the Hong Kong government’s trade offices would only prompt the HKTDC to intensify its own promotion efforts in the United States.

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Ma, 73, brings his extensive government and business experience to the city’s major trade promotion body at a time when Hong Kong and mainland companies face mounting challenges caused by supply chain disruptions that may be exacerbated by the latest round of US tariffs targeting dozens of countries.

Ma, now two months into his tenure, said that during a meeting with BOC chairman Ge Haijiao in Beijing on July 23, the pair discussed forging an alliance that leveraged their respective strengths, referring to the bank’s financial reach spanning more than 60 countries and the HKTDC’s global trade network.

“What we decided is that we should cooperate. We should form a strategic alliance to bring their clients to overseas markets … We have excellent contacts in the overseas market, and we can also promote Hong Kong to its clients,” he said.

“We could organise some overseas trips … and take [BOC’s] clients to markets that we are familiar with, like Europe, where we have 11 offices.

“We have all the right answers for their clients … Of course, they have a lot of networks and connections too, but combining the two, one plus one would equal three.”

He stressed that such cooperation could enhance Hong Kong’s status as a superconnector and a “super-value-adder” for global trade.

Ma, who previously served as secretary for financial services and the treasury and as the MTR Corporation’s chairman, was appointed as an independent non-executive director at the Bank of China (Hong Kong), or BOCHK, in 2023.

That same year, Ge was appointed as BOCHK’s chairman of the board. Ge also serves as a delegate to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.

US President Donald Trump announced his latest round of global tariffs last week, with China not among those targeted because of ongoing trade negotiations between the two nations. Both countries are also seeking to extend an earlier truce by three months.

The trade war has seen the US target a wide range of Chinese goods with tariffs, disrupting supply chains and forcing businesses to diversify their markets.

Hong Kong businesses are also seeking to navigate the trade turbulence, as many companies act as intermediaries between mainland manufacturers and US buyers.

In May, Trump axed “de minimis” duty exemptions for small parcels from China, including Hong Kong, raising costs for e-commerce and logistics companies in the city. The exemption will also be scrapped for all countries from August 29.

Ma’s appointment makes him the 10th chairman of the HKTDC, a statutory body established in 1966 to promote trade opportunities for Hong Kong companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

He said he aimed to complete an evaluation of the HKTDC’s offices by the end of the year to ensure “resources were maximised” and aligned with the government’s strategy to cultivate new markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Ma also said the council would not scale back its presence in the US, especially after the Hong Kong government’s three Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) in New York, San Francisco and Washington had become “less effective” because of the geopolitical climate.

In April, members of the US House of Representatives revived a bipartisan bill to close the offices. A version of the proposed legislation cleared a committee in the country’s Senate in 2023 but never went to the full floor for a vote.

“Due to the geopolitical situation, they wouldn’t be able to contact, for example, ministers or congressmen,” he said.

“The economic and trade arm is supposed to be functioning, but because one arm has been chopped off, the other arm will definitely be affected somehow.

“So the HKTDC needs to do more in this regard … we will show them more responsibility.”

Ma previously oversaw Hong Kong’s ETOs during his time as commerce chief between 2007 and 2008. The city currently operates a network of 14 such offices.

The HKTDC has three offices of its own in the US, which are located in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

Ma told the Post that it was important for the statutory body to foster business-to-business links in the US market.

“Trade with the US has gone down a bit for obvious reasons, but it is still a big market, and we shouldn’t ignore it while we are developing new markets. It doesn’t mean that we would abandon the US market,” he said.

The US is one of Hong Kong’s key global trading and investment partners.

It was the city’s third-largest trading partner in 2024, with total goods trade estimated at about US$33.8 billion.

“It’s a very interesting area to look at how we position ourselves in the US, and how we continue to connect with the US,” Ma said.

“Europe is also a very important market, but we have to, given the current geopolitical situation, be very careful.”

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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