At nine o'clock in the morning on April 15th, Hong Kong time, in the conference hall 301 of the Peninsula Hotel, elites from the political and business circles of Hong Kong and ASEAN gathered, as well as nearly a hundred media reporters from various countries, including Jiayi. TV stations have already started broadcasting the meeting live.
In addition, some business elites from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and England came here as guests.
As the organizers of this meeting, Hong Kong's Chief of Administration Kesos and ASEAN Secretary-General made speeches one after another. While thanking everyone for attending this forum, they also summarized the economic cooperation between Hong Kong and ASEAN last year.
Last year, several major data on economic cooperation between ASEAN and Hong Kong increased significantly, especially in terms of investment, import and export, and Hong Kong's proportion in ASEAN increased significantly.
Especially in terms of investment, according to official statistics, last year alone, nearly 500 companies in Xiangjiang invested in ASEAN, especially production-oriented enterprises such as textiles and clothing, toys, food processing, and agricultural product production. While promoting the economic development of ASEAN, they also It has brought hundreds of thousands of jobs to ASEAN.
Hong Kong has also benefited. Last year alone, nearly 50 companies were listed on the three major exchanges in Hong Kong. At the same time, ASEAN is also the largest source of foreign investment in Hong Kong, further consolidating Hong Kong's financial status in the world.
Since Li Jianhui was not in Hong Kong, Li Guobao became the first person to speak on behalf of the business community.
The helmsman of the second family in Hong Kong, Li Jianhui's brilliance usually makes him less present. In recent years, he has followed Li Jianhui's thoughts and has not shown too many opinions. On some occasions, he is even far more important. Far from being comparable to Ship King, Li Zhaoji, Zheng Yutong and others.
More than a month after Li Jianhui left Xiangjiang, Li Guobao made all parties re-recognize his demeanor as the helmsman of one of the four major Chinese families of the older generation and now the second largest family in Xiangjiang. Being able to helm the Li family in East Asia is by no means an unearned reputation. , no one ignores this wisdom and ability anymore.
"I am very honored to be standing here as a representative of the business community in this forum. Hong Kong and ASEAN are separated by a narrow strip of water. Cooperation, development, mutual benefit and win-win results will be our common theme in the next decades or even hundreds of years.
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After Li Guobao, Shen Bi, Robert Kuok, Thaksin Shinawatra, Li Chunxue, Huang Guangxing, etc. all spoke one after another, all focusing on the theme of cooperative development.
In the afternoon of that day, the two parties signed a number of cooperation agreements, among which Chen Yulian, as Li Jianhui's personal representative, signed with the Malay government to invest 4 billion Hong Kong dollars to establish the Nanhua Petrochemical Group in Johor Bahru.
East Asia Holdings has jointly invested with Xinjian Holdings, Nanlong Holdings, Blue Maple Holdings, Southeast Asia Development Bank, and Maybank UMB to jointly invest in the Western Malaysia Expressway. The first phase of the project is the Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru Expressway, with a total length of approximately 330 kilometers. Planned investment is approximately HK$12 billion.
After the highway is completed, it will be operated by the Western Malay Expressway Company. Thirty-five years after it is officially put into operation, the highway will be completely owned by the Malay government.
Xinhui Hotel Group, which has just been listed, is not willing to be left alone. With this listing, it publicly issued 35% of its shares and raised HK$875 million. Therefore, it has also set its sights on ASEAN.
Chen Zongxue, assistant to the president of Xinhui Holdings Group, signed a cooperation agreement with the Sinzhou government and plans to invest one billion Hong Kong dollars to build the fifth hotel with its own hotel building property in Sinzhou.
Lei Juekkun, Zhang Guangwen and others were also not indifferent. According to the Tung Wah Association plan, they relied on Tanjung Pelepas Port, Whampoa Shipyard, and Nanhua Petrochemical Group to make a large-scale layout in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Therefore, Kowloon Construction, Guanghua Construction, etc. took the lead.
Settling in Johor Bahru, it will become another development center of the Tung Wah Club real estate industry after Xiangjiang and Baodao.
The Vice President of Wheelock Land Group also signed an investment agreement with the Malaysian government of Johor Bahru. After the four major projects in Taipei, Tin Shui Wai, Tseung Kwan O, and Kuala Lumpur are put into operation, the 16th Wheelock Plaza will be built in Johor Bahru.
Affected by the sluggish real estate market in Hong Kong, this time not only the Tung Wah Association has carried out large-scale cooperation with ASEAN, but also New World Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land, Jardine, Swire, Cheung Kong, etc. have also increased their cooperation with ASEAN.
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After the afternoon meeting, many business elites accepted interviews from major media, and Li Guobao was one of them. The focus was on the West Malaysia Expressway.
"As the president of Bank of East Asia, I personally know that investing in expressways is a project with a large investment scale and slow recovery of costs.
But as a corporate leader with a sense of social responsibility, our investment cannot only consider profits.
In order to avoid damaging the interests of shareholders, this time I made the investment in the name of East Asia Holdings instead of Bank of East Asia.
I only hope that this investment can help the Malay government and the economy of the areas along the highway achieve better development.
As I said this morning, Hong Kong and ASEAN develop together for mutual benefit and win-win results. This investment also fully demonstrates the attitude of our business community in Hong Kong to cooperate with ASEAN.
And this investment is just the beginning. In the future, Xiangjiang Capital will invest more in these basic public projects, especially projects that facilitate local people’s production and life, such as highways, airports, electricity, gas, and city tap water, and provide local services.
Provide assistance for development and develop together with the local area.”
Regarding Li Guobao's words, these reporters have different standpoints and have different understandings.
Journalists who have been in Hong Kong for a long time know very well that the Donghua Group, headed by Li Jianhui and Li Guobao, has been committed to monopolizing public service projects, especially transportation, electricity, gas, etc. that are related to citizens' daily needs.
Although Xiangjiang has strict requirements on profits in this area, these capitals still flock to it.
For example, Tianshui City has already used Xiangjiang gas, and the electricity layout is also accelerating. It is expected that it will officially use New Territories Electric Power, a subsidiary of Xiangjiang Energy Group, by the end of this year.
Fortunately, tap water and subway operations, as well as Xiangjiang telephone lines, have always been in the hands of the government, otherwise everything would have been monopolized by it.
Of course, what cannot be denied here is the contribution these capitals have made to economic development. We don’t know the future, but at least for now, it is beneficial to economic development.
Moreover, Donghuahui is smart in that every industry has competitors, and it will not beat its opponents to death. In addition, it has not launched an unrestricted price war in the past two years. Even if it wants to be judged as a monopoly, it has no basis.
And because it has entered many industries that are closely related to citizens' lives, its influence is growing.
From Hong Kong to Treasure Island, now the Tung Wah Association has extended its tentacles to Malay. I am afraid that in a few years, Malay will become a stable market for the Tung Wah Association like Treasure Island.
As a media affiliated with the Tung Wah Association, Jiayi TV naturally puts Li Guobao on the stand of justice. An image of promoting cooperation between Hong Kong and ASEAN regardless of profit or loss is clearly displayed on Jiayi TV's screen.