Hong Kong’s bid to join RCEP will tie its economic future to Singapore, rest of Asean

Hong Kong is not a ‘zero-sum competitor’, an ex-Chinese official said at the Post’s inaugural Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2022

A Singapore minister also says the two cities have opportunities to collaborate in the Greater Bay Area, as well as in efforts to detect and analyse new Covid-19 variants

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A Singapore minister says “there is mutual symbiosis in the Singapore-Hong Kong relationship”. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:39pm, 3 Nov 2022Updated: 10:38pm, 3 Nov 2022

Southeast Asia is Hong Kong’s most potent economic hinterland outside the Chinese mainland, and there is no reason for countries in the region to view the city as a “zero-sum competitor”.

That was the underlying message from top officials and commentators who participated in the inaugural Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2022 organised by the Post.

Yu Hongjun, a former deputy minister of the Communist Party’s International Department, said Hong Kong’s plans to join the sprawling Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact comprising China and 14 other Asia-Pacific economies, would likely further bind the city’s fortunes to the Asean region.

The RCEP includes all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). The bloc also has a separate free-trade and investment agreement with Hong Kong.

“With the free-trade agreement and the investment agreement between Hong Kong and Asean member countries coming into full effect, and Hong Kong’s application to join the RCEP agreement being approved, the economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and Asean will further develop,” Yu said in a keynote speech.

Yu Hongjun, a former deputy minister of the Communist Party’s International Department, delivers a keynote at the Hong Kong Asean Summit 2022. Photo: SCMP / Jonathan Wong

Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, also speaking at the summit, offered a similar optimistic view on economic integration between Asean and Hong Kong, adding that Singapore “strongly supports” the city’s RCEP application.