stephen philips, director general of investment promotion of investhk, said in a recent interview that the focus of the belt and road initiative used to be on infrastructure, “road, rail, airports, development zones and so forth.” he noted that many companies in hong kong have been very actively involved in structuring, financing and advising such projects. the covid-19 pandemic, in his eyes, has made it urgent for companies to digitize their operations, which will make the digital “belt and road” become a reality far sooner than it would have been pre-covid, especially in terms of finance, fin-tech and e-commerce.
philips noted that whereas the belt and road used to be thought of as an infrastructure initiative by many companies, now people see it as much broader, and a fertile area for growth once the world economy gets back into gear.
