Hong Kong’s MTR Corp may be early beneficiary of ‘One Belt, One Road’, chairman says
MTR Corporation, the operator of railway networks in Hong Kong, may be among the first batch of companies in the city to benefit from the “One Belt, One Road” project, according to its chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang.
Ma told hundreds of attendees at the 10th Asian Financial Forum on Tuesday that there were several belt and road countries that would like to have MTR advisory services for their rail projects.
“I have visited several countries that lie on the route of the One Belt, One Road and they have great interest in building railways or light rail projects. At this stage, it is very preliminary but some countries such as Kazakhstan and Myanmar want to send their people to MTR Academy for training,” Ma said at the forum.
“This shows the belt and road project is very much relevant to Hong Kong companies like MTR. Hong Kong has many companies which are good at port and airport operations, which are the services and products demanded in these belt and road countries,” he said.
Initiated by Beijing in 2013, the belt and road plan is aimed at building railways, ports, airports, roads and other infrastructure projects in 60 countries neighbouring China and in other part of Asia, the Middle East and Europe to boost trade flow and economic growth.
Among the many fund raising projects, he said green bonds would be important as this type of funding was raised for projects that help reduce pollution problems.
