The opening ceremony of the 2024 Hong Kong-Macao-Shandong Week and the Shandong-Hong Kong Cooperation Exchange Conference kicked off in Hong Kong on May 27, marking the 12th time Shandong has hosted the event to boost cooperation and better serve national development.

During the event, Shandong conducted several investment promotion activities, reaching consensus on a number of new cooperation projects. Agreements for 69 investment cooperation projects are expected to be signed, with a total investment exceeding $10 billion.

"These projects cover fields such as the digital economy, energy transition, intelligent manufacturing, modern agriculture, and cultural tourism, aiming to deeply integrate Shandong's industrial advantages and market potential with Hong Kong's capital advantages, innovation capabilities and talent resources, thereby fostering and expanding new quality productive forces," said Chen Fei, director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce.

Developing new quality productive forces is essential for promoting high-quality development. In recent years, Shandong has focused on the development of the digital economy, cultivation of emerging industries, and transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, with the added value of its digital economy accounting for over 47 percent of GDP.

"Shandong and Hong Kong have clear comparative advantages and complement each other well. We look forward to further deepening cooperation and fostering new quality productive forces," said Sun Aijun, director of the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission.

Peter Lam Kin-ngok, chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said that as Chinese-style modernization progresses steadily, Shandong and Hong Kong can leverage their respective advantages to jointly build a multi-field, specialized trade and investment platform for enterprise exchanges and cooperation.

In 2023, trade between Shandong and Hong Kong reached 65.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.8 percent. Hong Kong's direct investment in Shandong amounted to $12.35 billion, accounting for about 70.5 percent of the province's total foreign investment. In 2023, trade between Shandong and Macao reached 500 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent. Shandong established 27 new Macao-invested enterprises, with actual use of Macao capital amounting to $1 million.