Sophia Chong, Executive Director at HKTDC
At Siam Paragon’s Speaker Lounge in Bangkok, against the backdrop of SITE 2026, Sophia Chong, Executive Director at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), sat down to explain why Thailand, and Southeast Asia more broadly, has become central to Hong Kong’s global strategy.
The occasion was a fitting one: HKTDC had just received the Global Partnership Award from Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA), marking eight years of collaboration since the two organisations signed their first memorandum of understanding in 2018.
Also Read: How Thailand’s NIA is driving global collaboration for Thai innovation
“We are very honoured and privileged, because the prime objective of visiting SITE is to receive this award, which exemplifies the longstanding partnership between NIA and HKTDC,” Chong said. “We started our MOU as early as 2018, and since then we have been organising mutual missions — Hong Kong startups to SITE and other Thai events, and NIA also bringing Thai startups to Hong Kong, to events such as InnoEX, as well as Food Expo, because Thailand is also very advanced in food tech.”
Bangkok’s growing role in a 51-office network
Thailand’s importance to HKTDC isn’t incidental; it’s structural. The council operates 51 offices worldwide, seven of them across ASEAN, with Bangkok serving as the regional hub overseeing Southeast Asia and South Asia, including India. That positioning reflects a broader shift in Hong Kong’s trade patterns since the pandemic.
“We observed a shift in the demographics as well as in the global trade scenario,” Chong explained. “ASEAN has become the second-largest export market for Hong Kong. From 2019 to 2025, we’ve witnessed our exports grow by more than 60 per cent, which is a very huge number.”
This growth has been reinforced by Hong Kong government policy. Under the GoGlobal Task Force — led by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development and delivered jointly by HKTDC, InvestHK and a number of professional bodies and service providers — eligible mainland Chinese companies are being actively guided into Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand, via Hong Kong. “So that’s why RCEP is becoming increasingly important,” Chong noted, referencing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. “For many companies, ASEAN has strategic proximity, and Hong Kong is a growing market with a growing role.”
Hong Kong’s case as a global springboard
Asked how Hong Kong differentiates itself from Singapore, the other major hub Southeast Asian founders often weigh, Chong pointed to the city’s “One Country, Two Systems” framework as its defining advantage. “Hong Kong has a unique advantage under one country, two systems, under the Chinese Mainland,” she said. “Because of our common law system, our free flow of capital, free flow of people and information, and our own currency — all of this, together with a strong intellectual property protection scheme, forms the foundation for doing business with the international community.”
That foundation, she added, works both ways: mainland Chinese companies use Hong Kong as a springboard to the world, while international firms use it to enter the Chinese Mainland with reduced risk. “Hong Kong service providers understand the culture, understand the system, understand how it works, so we provide a very good partnership before going into the market.”
Chong outlined three “drive engines” underpinning Hong Kong’s value proposition, echoed recently by the city’s Financial Secretary: its role as an international financial centre, its evolution as a sophisticated trade hub moving up the value chain into advanced manufacturing and branding, and its emerging status as an innovation and technology hub that commercialises research for global markets.
Also Read: Why the tech world is heading to Hong Kong in April 2026
The figures back up the financial claim. Hong Kong became the world’s top IPO fundraising centre last year, raising the equivalent of roughly US$37 billion across 119 new listings, with subsequent capital raises adding a further US$66 billion, pushing total capital raised past US$100 billion in a single year. “This really is a record,” Chong said.
Biotech, green finance and the Greater Bay Area advantage
For biotech and healthcare startups specifically, Hong Kong has introduced listing rules, Chapters 18A and 18C, allowing pre-revenue, pre-profit companies to raise capital provided they meet the criteria set by the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. “This has already facilitated hundreds of companies being listed and raising capital in Hong Kong in the healthcare and biotech space,” Chong noted.
Layered on top is access to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, home to some 87 million people across nine mainland cities plus Hong Kong and Macau. Through the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect introduced in 2021, drugs and medical devices approved in Hong Kong can be fast-tracked into 71 designated medical institutions across the Bay Area. “As of 30 April this year, we already have 71 drugs and 91 medical devices going into practice in the Greater Bay Area,” Chong said.
“Some of those drugs from the US, have since been approved by the National Medical Products Administration in Beijing to apply nationwide, so you can see, step by step, how Hong Kong leads into the Greater Bay Area and then into the mainland market of 1.4 billion people.”
Green finance is another pillar Chong highlighted as an underappreciated growth area. Hong Kong has arranged green and sustainable bonds for eight consecutive years, a first in Asia, with the government issuing roughly US$32 billion in green bonds since 2018 across more than 110 projects covering green buildings, waste management and resource recovery. Green startups in the city have grown 150 per cent over five years, now numbering around 265.
“We think that green startups and green compliance are the current high-growth area in the world,” she said.
From trade facilitator to startup accelerator
Beyond capital markets, Chong emphasised HKTDC’s evolving role as an ecosystem builder. Startups landing in Hong Kong become eligible for government funding schemes such as the Innovation and Technology Fund, administered by the Innovation and Technology Commission, and gain access to incubators including Hong Kong Science Park and Cyberport. InvestHK, meanwhile, handles the practical side of relocation, from company setup to finding schools for founders’ children.
“HKTDC will provide marketing and business-matching opportunities through our sectoral focus exhibitions,” Chong said, pointing to more than 40 world-class events spanning healthcare, logistics, electronics and lifestyle sectors, alongside international missions to CES in Las Vegas and Viva Technology in Paris.
Much of this activity is now anchored around Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis, a new innovation corridor bordering Shenzhen. The Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Park has received a fresh government injection of roughly US$1.3 billion this year, on top of about US$2.2 billion previously committed, with two further parks — San Tin Technopole and Hung Shui Kiu — each drawing a similar US$1.3 billion investment to attract R&D, advanced manufacturing and production-focused technology firms.
Also Read: Why Hong Kong’s metro just became every marketer’s dream
“So HKTDC’s role is not just event organising, but rather business matching and deal-making,” Chong said. “We are moving up the value chain, apart from being the superconnector, we want to give value add, and ultimately be a super partner, so that startups can enter the market with reduced obstacles.”
Looking ahead
With Hong Kong’s trade with ASEAN growing nearly 64 per cent between 2019 and 2025, Chong sees the relationship deepening further over the next two years, particularly in biomedicine, green technology, robotics and the low-altitude economy. For Southeast Asian founders weighing where to scale next, her message was clear: Hong Kong isn’t just a financial centre, but a proven pathway into one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing markets.
The post Hong Kong’s pitch to SEA: “We want to be your super partner” appeared first on e27.