Investing in One Belt One Road Countries
According to eMarketer, an international data and market research firm, in 2019, e-commerce sales worldwide accounted for 14.1% of total sales and targets to grow to 22.0% by 2023. Asia Pacific takes up 25.0% of e-commerce sales growth worldwide making it the leading region in the world.
Furthermore, in 2019, Asia Pacific takes up 64% of global online sales.
Moreover, according to yStats.com, a global e-commerce market intelligence company, in South East Asia, Thailand and Vietnam are ranked top 3 largest markets. Therefore, we have chosen to these markets to explore and for Hong Kong to promote its strength in products and/or services in these markets.
Additionally, these mentioned countries are aligned with the Hong Kong Government’s policy on the promotion of the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiatives, all countries mentioned above fall under the initiative. And according to the Trade and Industry Department (https://www.tid.gov.hk/english/ita/fta/hkasean/index.html), the Hong Kong Government has signed Free Trade Agreements and Investment Agreements with the mentioned countries, it looks to further develop business relations going forward.
Most importantly, while Hong Kong enterprises provide good quality products and services, they generally lack market knowledge of overseas trade partners and resources to build up sales channels and business connections in the target markets. Therefore, this project is vital to the development of Hong Kong enterprises and their growth.
Furthermore, we intend to help Hong Kong SMEs as follows:
- Enhance their local market knowledge on e-commerce, so that they can better promote their products and/or services in Thailand and Vietnam
- Provide a bridge and business connections between Hong Kong SMEs and Thailand/Vietnam businesses
For more information on The Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure development and investments in ASEAN, which includes Thailand and Vietnam, then go here: https://research.hktdc.com/en/article/NjIyMTQ1Mzk4 and view a full report conducted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and United Overseas Bank.