Commissioner for Belt and Road Nicholas Ho has said that an upcoming summit on the country's global infrastucture and economic development initiative aims to be more relevant to small and medium-sized enterprises.

"We want the conference to be more and more engaging and relevant, not just to the governments or the mega corporations, but relevant to the SMEs...so they can begin to understand the opportunities it presents and how they can tap into this market," he said ahead of the summit to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ho added that the focus of this year's summit is to advance high-quality cooperation and development, stating that it aligns with the nation's 15th Five-Year Plan.

He traced the initiative back to strengthening cooperation with Asean, then with the Middle Eastern market before expanding into North Africa.

"This year as you can see the government has a strong focus on opening the Central Asian market because we believe in building a hub-to-hub collaboration model as well as tapping into the 80-plus million population in Central Asia," Ho said.

In the future, he added, central authorities are looking into markets in West Asia, North Africa and South Asia.

He explained that is why senior leaders in governments and private sectors from Latin America, Pakistan, Central Asia and more will be attending the upcoming summit.

"This ties in with the overall Belt and Road strategy of Hong Kong, of how while deep in cooperation with the three regions I mentioned [Asean, the Middle East and Central Asia], we are also preparing and laying the groundwork for West Asia, North Africa and South Asia."


Edited by Aaron Tam