ASTANA, September 8 — The economic prize on the table is clear: turning roughly US$1.65 billion in signed agreements between Hong Kong and Central Asia into lasting commercial relationships. That was the central question at the South China Morning Post’s inaugural China Conference: Central Asia 2026, held Monday in Astana. Government officials and business leaders gathered about three months after Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu led the city’s first business delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in June.
That trip produced 96 agreements and memorandums of understanding spanning investment, finance, aviation, technology and education. Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, Hong Kong’s commissioner for Belt and Road, said interest has grown on both sides since the visit.
He noted more inquiries from Kazakh companies and organizations looking to use Hong Kong as a finance and trade hub, as well as from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese firms seeking access to Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian market.
Direct flights and regional access
Direct flights between Hong Kong and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s most populous city, are expected to debut in January. The route would cut travel time to about six to seven hours, which Ho said would boost business travel and tourism, including from Greater Bay Area cities. Dr Li Kouqing, deputy director of the CAREC Institute, an intergovernmental organization, noted that nearly US$60 billion has been mobilized for regional cooperation in Central Asia over the past 25 years.
About 70 per cent of that went to transport infrastructure, making the region more accessible, he said.
Beyond raw materials
Sabr Yessimbekov, an adviser to Kazakhstan’s Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, said the country wants to shed its image as a natural-resource supplier and transit corridor. Investors, he said, increasingly see it as a platform for manufacturing, raw-material processing, logistics and technology. Yessimbekov identified water infrastructure and food processing and packaging as promising areas.
Kazakhstan aims to export more finished agricultural products rather than raw meat and grain, he said. In mining, Johnson Chui, managing director and head of global issuer services at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, highlighted the exchange’s Chapter 18 listing regime, designed for mineral and mining companies.
Artificial intelligence and data-centre infrastructure were also flagged as investment areas, though officials noted electricity shortages in Kazakhstan could constrain large, energy-intensive projects. The real test over the next 12 to 24 months, business leaders said, is whether the June agreements translate into durable deals. Yessimbekov stressed the priority was moving “from memorandum-based relations to real, industry-based and project-based results.”
