Israeli envoy eyes greater ties with HK in post-pandemic era

On the 75th independence celebration of Israel, its top envoy to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region hopes to upgrade educational and cultural ties during the post-COVID-19 recovery.

In an interview with China Daily on the sidelines of a special reception the consulate hosted on June 20 to commemorate the event, Israeli Consul General Amir Lati said he hopes to bring more success stories of Israeli companies that are doing business in Hong Kong, as well as in the whole of China.

The consul general also noted that although China and Israel are in a way "young countries", it's wrong to look at it as "relations between young countries".

"Actually, they represent Chinese civilization, they represent thousands of years of history, they represent Jewish civilization," Lati said.

Diplomatic relations between Israel and China were established in 1992, which the consul general called a "modern milestone".

Lati said that in 1992, the volume of trade was $50 million between China and Israel, and "now it's almost $20 billion".

"So you could see the change. In 2014, there were 24,000 Chinese nationals that went to Israel. In 2019, there were more than 156,000," Lati said.

He said that the pandemic "brought a lot of things backward", and one of the important things "we need to focus on" is recovery.

"I would say it's an important priority. COVID had an impact. We are past COVID. It's time now to repair the negative impacts of COVID. A lot of the bad impacts were in our ability to visit each other, to exchange views, to exchange technologies, to tour one another's countries in so on. I would say the same about Hong Kong," Lati said.

He said that apart from the Belt and Road Initiative, Israel has a lot to offer China, and China to offer Israel.

He said Israel had a lot to offer in the field of healthcare, and that the country has more than 8,000 tech companies, with 2,000 of them from healthcare and COVID-19.

"That's from the Israeli side. The most popular in Israel now is (Chinese auto company) BYD, …so there are always new things and I think there will always be new areas we can explore," Lati said. China and Israel can also explore further the future of their agricultural cooperation in areas like food tech, alternative proteins and extending shelf lives, he added.

Taking agriculture as an example, Lati said agriculture is still important in China, but Israel now is more computerized, with more modern agriculture, and more technological agriculture.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region also has potential of exchanges with Israel.

"On the academic and, you know, cultural level, one thing that I do want to see here: … There are a few universities (on the Chinese mainland) that have Hebrew studies and Jewish studies. But there is no such department in Hong Kong, and I think there could be an interest in that," Lati said.

The consul general estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 Jewish people are living in Hong Kong, attributing the numbers to history and legacy.

"I do hope in the future, we will be able to do a few steps toward opening one," he said.

"Another thing I think we need to push for is direct flights. It hasn't recovered yet. This is a key for exchange in the other fields," the Israeli envoy said.

He said the SAR's trade investments in Israel reached $3.2 billion.

According to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Israel was Hong Kong's 24th-largest trading partner in 2021, Hong Kong's 27th-largest export market, and Hong Kong's 18th-largest import market.

Regarding Chinese diplomacy in the Middle East, Lati said that global stability is important and is "a common denominator for all of us".

"If we want to expand the Abraham Accords to more countries (beyond Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain), yes, our hands are always and will always be reaching for peace. The way that we think that we should do it is by direct negotiations. At the end of the day, you need to speak with the other side and you need to do it directly. That's the most effective way," Lati said.

"One of the things important for us is to maintain the channels open. Again of course because of the pandemic, it had an impact also on exchange. When I say exchange, it's on the highest levels. And I think this is another thing we want to see changing," he added.