ASTANA — Hong Kong and Central Asian nations are pushing to deepen economic ties beyond finance, focusing on tourism, professional services, mining, agriculture and digital infrastructure, according to a conference held Monday in Astana, Kazakhstan. The South China Morning Post’s inaugural China Conference: Central Asia 2026 brought together government officials and senior figures from industrial, investment and financial sectors. The event came about three months after Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu visited Central Asia in June, leading the city’s first business delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
That trip yielded 96 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) worth more than US$1.65 billion across sectors including investment, finance, aviation, technology and education. Business leaders at the Astana conference said the real test over the next 12 to 24 months would be whether those agreements translate into projects and lasting commercial relationships.
Hub ambitions on both sides
Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, Hong Kong’s commissioner for Belt and Road, said interest had increased on both sides since Lee’s visit. “We are getting more and more inquiries, not just from Kazakh companies or Kazakh organisations looking to use Hong Kong as a hub for finance and trade,” Ho said, adding that Hong Kong and mainland Chinese companies also wanted to use the city as a hub to access Kazakhstan and the Central Asian market. Improved connectivity was seen as key to expanding trade and investment.
Ho said direct flights expected to debut in January between Hong Kong and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s most populous city, would cut the journey to about six to seven hours, boosting both business travel and tourism. “We strongly believe that Almaty would be a great tourist destination, not just for Hong Kong people but also for travellers from Greater Bay Area cities,” he said.
Dr Li Kouqing, deputy director of the CAREC Institute, an intergovernmental organisation, said nearly US$60 billion had been mobilised for regional cooperation in Central Asia over the past 25 years, with about 70 per cent going to transport infrastructure. “For a long time, it was very, very difficult to reach this region,” Li said. “But following this huge investment, we now see easier access to Central Asia and closer connections between the region and the rest of the world.”
Beyond raw materials
Sabr Yessimbekov, an adviser to Kazakhstan’s Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, said the country sought to move beyond its image as a supplier of natural resources and transit corridor, with investors increasingly seeing it as a platform for manufacturing, raw-material processing, logistics and technology. He identified water infrastructure and food processing and packaging as promising areas, saying Kazakhstan wanted to move up the agricultural value chain by exporting more finished products rather than raw meat and grain.
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 potential investment areas, though electricity shortages in Kazakhstan could constrain large, energy-intensive projects.
Yessimbekov said the priority was moving “from memorandum-based relations to real, industry-based and project-based results.”
