The following question arises: Why is this volume essential for those of us who want to understand Hong Kong’s role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and for those involved in this development?

Hong Kong Professional Services and the Belt and Road Initiative Challenges for Co-Evolving Sustainability offers a unique perspective on the current and prospective roles of Hong Kong’s business companies and professionals in BRI. This edited volume stands out from other contributions to Hong Kong and BRI, as it is the latest contribution on this issue and is written in a style typical of policy research. Therefore, it can serve as a roadmap for Hong Kong to leverage its strengths and capabilities to position itself in the  BRI, bringing forward the knowledge and skills of its professionals. Moreover, editors Linda Chelan Li and Phyllis Lai Lan Mo and their team have employed academic methodologies, such as qualitative and quantitative analyses and action research, to provide concrete recommendations for improving Hong Kong’s participation in BRI. The interviews and field works conducted in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other places are key highlights of this contribution.

This book consists of two parts, which have nine chapters.

In the introduction and Chapter 1, the authors decode China’s BRI, presenting it as an exclusive club where China’s state-owned enterprises hold the reins. They explain timeframes and elucidate BRI’s development, challenges, and opportunities for establishing new supply chains and markets for Chinese companies and products. Chapter 2 critically examines Hong Kong’s Role in the BRI, proposing the idea of making Hong Kong a superconnector in BRI. This chapter analyzes Hong Kong’s unique role and capabilities as a driving force in implementing reforms for developments in the framework of the Chinese central government’s strategy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 delve into Hong Kong’s professional capabilities, which can help to project BRI’s financing, improve accountancy, and make Hong Kong BRI’s dispute resolution hub. The main argument is that considering the pre-existing capabilities, rich connectivities, and experience of Hong Kong’s business companies and professionals in international business, they can lead in all these areas. However, the government is currently underutilizing this resource. The authors recommend leveraging Hong Kong’s capacities in all these areas to implement mediation for dispute resolution, reforms in investments in infrastructure, etc. They also propose the creation of a new international credit rating agency to develop BRI’s bond market in Islamic states. In these chapters, the authors also suggest using the capabilities of Hong Kong’s universities to provide education to more students from BRI participant states, which will help to develop human resources for the further development of BRI. 

In Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9, the authors introduce the main findings and results of case studies implemented in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar. These chapters map Chinese and Hong Kong investments in these countries. Authors fulfilled field works in these countries; they took interviews from stakeholders, academics and business people, which provided an opportunity to check facts and results of analyses on the ground. In these chapters, the authors critically examine reasons for shortcuts, challenges, risks, and prospects of Chinese investments in the abovementioned countries.

These will allow policymakers to take steps to improve the current situation, bringing better opportunities for all sides. The authors illustrate that companies from Hong Kong have successfully operated in these countries. They recommend that Beijing generates more links with Hong Kong through experience sharing, joint projects, and involvement of Hong Kong professionals to create better conditions for BRI’s development. In sum, implementing the recommendations of this study will give Hong Kong soft power, making it a financial, educational, and dispute-resolution hub in BRI, bringing new importance to Hong Kong, as it will stand as an essential bridge between the world and China. This book will interest policymakers, business people, scholars, and students who are interested in BRI studies, Hong Kong’s role there, and BRI’s operationality in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.

Li, L.C., & Mo, P.L.L. (Eds.). (2023). Hong Kong Professional Services and the Belt and Road Initiative: Challenges for Co-evolving Sustainability (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003159308

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Associate Professor, Mher D. Sahakyan is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. He is the founder and director of the China-Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research, a foundation in Armenia. He is the editor of Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations and China and Eurasian Powers in Multipolar World Order 2.0 Security, Diplomacy, Economy and Cybersecurity, which Routledge published in 2024 and 2023. He is the co-editor of China and Eurasia: Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order, published by Routledge in September 2021. Mher  is a 2024 LEWI Visiting Fellow at the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He holds a doctorate in international relations from China’s Nanjing University. Mher Sahakyan was an AsiaGlobal Fellow at the Asia Global Insitute of the University of Hong Kong in 2020, 2021, and 2022. He is an elected advisory board member of the International Institute for Peace, Austria and the School of Liberal Arts & Humanities, Woxsen University, India.