Under the accurate leadership of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, and with the joint efforts of Beijing and Hong Kong, the 22nd Beijing•Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Seminar (hereinafter referred to as the “Beijing•Hong Kong Seminar”) was successfully held in Beijing on October 24-25 2018. The Beijing•Hong Kong Seminar was held on the critical year of connecting the implementation of the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up with the implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan. It is also held under the cooperation mechanism between Beijing and Hong Kong upgrading from "Beijing-Hong Kong Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference" to "Beijing-Hong Kong Cooperation Conference", and in the context of the fourth meeting of the Beijing-Hong Kong Cooperation Conference, which received great attention from the government and the industrial and commercial communities of Beijing and Hong Kong.  

The theme of this year's Beijing•Hong Kong Seminar is “jointly develop ‘the Belt and the Road’, composing a new chapter in Beijing•Hong Kong Cooperation” , together with Hong Kong, we shall jointly construct “the Belt and the Road” to fully integrate the development strategies of Beijing and Hong Kong and expand deepening and high-quality cooperations between the two places in fields of finance and service industry, technological innovation, cultural creativity, education, urban management and major engineering construction, and thus achieving mutual benefits and win-win results in a wider field, greater depth and at a higher level. A total number of 15 events were organised at the seminar.  

Mayor Chen Jining, Chief Executive Linzheng Yuee and Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Luo Kangrui attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Vice Mayor Yin Yong presided over the opening ceremony. Song Zhe, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, and Qiu Hong, deputy director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, and other officials of relevant departments of the central government also attended the opening ceremony. Vice Mayor Yin Yong and Vice Mayor Wang Hong also attended the project signing ceremony, financial cooperation, service industry expansion and opening up cooperation, and jointly develop "the Belt and the Road" and other special events. More than 5,000 people from government agencies and organizers of Beijing and Hong Kong, Hong Kong industrial and commercial circles, well-known business associations in Hong Kong, and state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and multinational corporations attended the opening ceremony and the special events. At the signing ceremony of the Beijing-Hong Kong two-way investment on key projects, 15 Beijing-Hong Kong cooperation projects in the fields of finance, high-tech, cultural creativity and service industry were signed on-site, with a contract value of $3.53 billion. The “Opportunity, Cooperation and Development” special event focuses on the jointly development of "the Belt and the Road" between Beijing and Hong Kong, financial cooperation and innovation development, service industry expansion and opening up, technological innovation, cultural and creative industry authorization, Beijing urban sub-center development and city management, as well as other contents, made exchanging seminars and negotiations on these affairs. During the seminar and the events, pictures demonstrating the cooperation achievements and development opportunities in the key areas of finance and service industry, “the Belt and the Road” construction, and scientific and technological innovation of Beijing and Hong Kong were displayed on site. Also on the site, the method of practical form demonstrations was used to show the technology products in the fields of artificial intelligence and health technology developed by representative unicorn enterprises and technology companies of Zhongguancun. Also, investment consultation and negotiation between various districts, development zones and Hong Kong enterprises have been specially arranged.  

For a long time, Beijing and Hong Kong have a very good basis for cooperation. Hong Kong is not only the largest source of foreign investment in Beijing, but also is a region where Beijing enterprises invest most outside the mainland. As of September 2018, Hong Kong has established a total of 15,687 foreign-invested enterprises in Beijing, with an accumulated actual investment of $79.58 billion, accounting for 52% of Beijing's actual utilization of foreign capital. The cumulative direct investment of Beijing enterprises in Hong Kong is $28.812 billion, accounting for 44.19% of all direct investment outside the mainland of Beijing.