Foreign diplomats and business-chamber chiefs based in Hong Kong — disembarking on Friday from a tour to Zhongshan, Guangdong province — expressed shared optimism about deeper cooperation between Zhongshan and their respective home countries, with innovation and technology front and center.

They also praised Hong Kong’s role as a superconnector — a unique role linking the rest of the world and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and through it, the vast Chinese mainland — and held out hope that this position could be put to greater use.

Their remarks came during a two-day trip to Zhongshan that began on Thursday. Organized by the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong SAR, the visit sought to help foreign communities in Hong Kong uncover fresh roads into the mainland city’s rising industries.

The delegation toured, among other sites, local enterprises in embodied mobile robots and innovative antibody drugs; a leading new energy equipment manufacturer; and a global brand lighting center.

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Johannes Hack, chair of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, lauded the tour as a showcase of “massive progress the Chinese mainland has made and will continue to make” and “the importance of interconnectivity”.

“This (interconnectivity) is where Hong Kong is vital, and that’s why we, as the commerce chamber, are happy to be in Hong Kong, because we can connect the Chinese mainland with Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong with the world,” he said.

The tour prompted Hack to consider that with many established European firms already boasting a solid foothold in China, the focus should now pivot to drawing smaller European businesses to the country, as Europe also is home to many startups in cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and life sciences.

Still, Hack said, the conceptualization of the Greater Bay Area is known “not quite so well” in Europe, adding that his chamber is working to familiarize European stakeholders with “the overall content” of the region, key among them, the role that each of the region’s cities plays.

A first-timer to Zhongshan, Phoo Pwint Ko Ko, Myanmar’s consul general in Hong Kong, told China Daily that she “really enjoyed the trip”.

She “liked the region” at first sight, Phoo Pwint Ko Ko said, drawn by the landscape en route to Zhongshan on Thursday.

“But it’s when I saw with my own eyes those companies (in Zhongshan) that I felt impressed, and this really makes me look at the development of the city,” the consul general said.

Phoo Pwint Ko Ko said that in a technology-driven age, Myanmar could benefit from additional advanced equipment and technical know-how, and with her country’s ties to China already close, she said she believes Myanmar’s business community would like further cooperation with China to churn out more exports and cultivate more I&T technicians.

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As a Hong Kong-based consul-general, Phoo Pwint Ko Ko said she “must learn more about the Greater Bay Area” because she “wants to see opportunities to enhance our country’s relations not only with Hong Kong but also with other Greater Bay Area cities,” given Hong Kong’s increasingly integrated role within the region.

South Korean acting Consul-General Chun Sunghwan, said the tour has enabled him to “learn more about the Greater Bay Area, what the region looks like”.

“I want more South Korean companies and entrepreneurs to have a chance to come to the Greater Bay Area, to have a firsthand experience of the region, before making a decision” on potential partnerships, Chun said.

Also on the trip was Benjamin Sigg, co-president and a board member of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He had spent one Chinese New Year holiday in Zhongshan, but this visit marked his first business trip to the city.

“It’s overwhelming to see so much powerful businesses and what China has to offer in this part of the country. … (This time) is a different perspective,” he said.

“China, it is leading in many ways in I&T,” Sigg said, adding that he is confident that Switzerland and China can find win-win tie-ups, after being left “very impressed” by a visit to Akeso, which leads China’s antibody drug research and development from Zhongshan.

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Rajkumar Sabnani, chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong, marveled at what he described a “different, completely different” city, being “amazed” to see Zhongshan — where he “came and bought basic products some 10, 20 years ago” — now brimming with high-tech offerings.

“We have products from the Greater Bay Area. … I’m thinking that in the future, we can get high-tech products from Zhongshan,” the chairman said.

Tony Bartolome, a business development consultant of the Philippines Chamber of Commerce (Hong Kong & Macau), said the tour’s highlight for him was discovering a new energy equipment manufacturer based in the city.

“We are learning China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) and trying to look for an area to focus our work on,” Bartolome said. “And one of the potentials is renewable energy. China is a stronghold in that (sector).”

Alain Li, head of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong, was also awed by Zhongshan’s wealth of enterprises powered by “new-quality productivity forces” — innovation-led productivity drivers.

“I will go back and report my findings to our members and encourage them to come and see for themselves,” he said.

The Greater Bay Area — an 11-city cluster conceived as a future world-class technology and business hub — accounted for approximately one-ninth of China’s GDP in 2024, official figures show.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com