Hong Kong representatives preparing for COP28 engagements

Hong Kong delegates are gearing up endeavors for the upcoming United Nations Climate Conference COP 28 with an aim to expand their eco-friendly footprints in the Middle East and take their engagements up a notch.

The Hong Kong Ambassadors Club – an organization for global investors, professionals, and diplomats seeking to deepen ties, build connections, and participate in intimate and high-level conversations – will be rounding up about 30 people to attend the largest climate conference held annually. The COP 28 will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from Nov 30 to Dec 12.

Fifteen young leaders from family businesses in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland are expected to engage in activities like growing green funding between Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and the Middle East.

The rest of the members will include CEOs, tycoons, and mid-level and medium-scale businesses, to name a few. The group will be led by the organization's co-founder Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, member of the Legislative Council and the Executive Council of the HKSAR Government.

Patrick Tsang, co-founder of HKAC and chairman of Tsangs Group, said in a statement that by connecting global experts and deploying innovative technologies, the HKAC "is accelerating collaboration to drive positive change and turning vision into action".

The HKAC earlier held engaging trips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia from late September and is currently finalizing around 10 memorandums of understanding in the technology, innovation and food sectors with its key counterparts in the two Gulf Arab nations before the end of the year.

The HKAC said there are two major goals to the upcoming trip in the UAE this November: one is to attend the Abu Dhabi Finance Week, which will run from Nov 27 to Nov 30, and the second is to look for opportunities to collaborate, not just by signing MoUs, but forge commercial agreements with green businesses from Hong Kong to expand to the UAE.

Further, it said the mission of the 15 young leaders with a family business background is to scale up activities in areas like green funding and deepen engagements among youths of the regions to explore Hong Kong as an investment destination.

"We would like to express our gratitude to the relevant authorities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their invaluable support respectively, including the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia; the UAE Ministry of Economy, the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, Abu Dhabi Investment Office, Consulate General of the UAE in Hong Kong," the HKAC statement read.

"We remain committed to bridge the two regions and conduct business and investment, thereby fostering connectivity and prosperity globally," it added.