Chamber services think tank connects with Beijing thinkers

When KA900 landed in Beijing airport on 4 July Stanley Ko was among the first to disembark. As Chairman of the HKCSI, the Chamber’s services policy think tank, he was leading a delegation on the CSI’s annual visit to the State Development and Planning Commission. He had to rush to attend a meeting at the old airport terminal before going on to a lunch hosted by the SDPC.

The rest of delegation were much more relaxed. For many it was our first time in Beijing since the new airport terminal opened. We were much impressed by the new building and new facilities; not a bad start for a services delegation, I thought. Though a small delegation of ten, we were thinking big, for in this visit we were planning to get connected with the major think tanks of Mainland China.

The delight of the new airport terminal wore off during the 45 minutes of waiting to clear immigration. That experience reinforced in us one of the messages which the HKCSI intended to pass out whenever we crossed the border into another jurisdiction, namely, that the streamlining of immigration procedures will do wonders for trade in services.

We ended up arriving later than Mr Ko, who was fittingly at the lunch venue before us. The host of the lunch was Deputy Director General Mr Yang Weimin, who heads the SDPC’s Office of Tertiary Industries. Though an “official” function, it did not feel any where like official, rather more a gathering among old friends. This was, after all, the third time in as many years that Mr Ko has led an HKCSI mission to Beijing. Mr Yang himself has led two missions to Hong Kong, the last one only a month before.

Old friends had once to be new. Our first meeting after lunch was to meet the new Vice Minister of SDPC who oversees the Tertiary Industries Office, Mr Wang Yang. His hospitality was as good as his name - boundless ocean, so says the characters - we were treated to a warm welcome and a frank and friendly discussion. One of his key messages was that China attaches great importance to WTO entry and that Hong Kong’s special position will render the SAR an important player in the development of the Mainland. Ever the advocate of Hong Kong service industries, Mr Ko made a case for liberalisation of more tertiary sectors in the Mainland, stressing that it was equal treatment rather than preferential treatment which we were seeking.

The meeting with the Vice Minister was followed by a lengthy and substantive discussion with the SDPC, chaired by Mr Yang. One surprise participant was Dr Ning Jizhe, a previous secretary of the Tertiary Industries Office and long time friend of the HKCSI, who is now Deputy Director General in charge of the Office of the West Region Development Leading Group of the State Council, which reports to Premier Zhu Rongji. His was a difficult and challenging job but he was obviously enjoying it, as the opening up of the West Region would be of strategic importance for China in the post-WTO era.

A most enlightening discussion ensued with Director General Bai Hejin, President of the SDPC’s Academy of Macroeconomic Research. According to Mr Bai, the Academy is the biggest think tank in China, employing some 500 people under various specialist Institutes on investment, regional economies, prices and market, social development, energy, etc. “Bai” means white but the scholarly President clearly showed his colours by displaying an encyclopedic knowledge about China, WTO and Hong Kong.

As delegates George Leung of HSBC and SME champion Denis Lee testified, part of the pleasure of the CSI meetings with the SDPC was the ability to exchange views frankly and freely, brainstorm-like, between the two sides. Remarks such as that by Mr Yang about using Hong Kong’s GEM (Growth Enterprise Market) more for capital raising for Mainland technology firms, reinforced our belief that there are people in the Mainland who understand Hong Kong’s positioning very well. They also left us with no doubt that they could spot a request for preferential treatment when they see one - not that we made any such request; the CSI stands for free trade and fair play and I think our positions were well appreciated.

In the evening we dined with Mr Lan Shiliang, a former SDPC Director General and another old friend who now runs Xinhua airlines, a business controlled by the Commission. He clearly enjoyed his job and his friendship with the CSI.

The next morning we called on Deputy Director General Zhang Xunhai of the Foreign Investment Administration of MOFTEC (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation). Newly posted from his previous job as an insurance regulator in the People’s Bank, Mr Zhang represents one of the younger breeds of the senior Mainland officials – positive, eager and open minded. He displayed the same optimistic mood for Hong Kong after the Mainland’s entry to the WTO, while accepting that a big challenge for the Mainland looms over deregulation of some important industries.

In the afternoon we paid our first visit to the Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council and were received by Professor Zhang Xiaoji, Director General of its Foreign Economic Relations Department. In Mr Zhang’s words, the 160 people of the DRC are collectively the think-tank for the State Council. As we both described ourselves as think tanks, we spent some time tanking up on each other’s thoughts and concluded that there were many topics of mutual interest which we could follow up on, possibly leading to some cooperative projects between us.

The official delegation programme ended with the DRC but in the evening some delegates went on to attend a dinner hosted by Mr Ko to meet with Vice Minister Shao Bingren of the State Council Office for Restructuring the Economic System (SCORES). Minister Shao was accompanied by two Director Generals, Messrs Kong Jingyuan and Wang Shuilin. Once a large Commission SCORES is now a small-sized office staffed by very senior officials giving advice to the State Council and state leaders. The occasion was informal but again, they showed a remarkable understanding of Hong Kong.

The immigration process at Beijing airport next morning seemed more pleasant on my way out. This has been a fruitful trip - In less than fourty-eight hours a connection has been made with the three most important think tanks of China.