Hello everyone!

Warm congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the China Development Forum and greetings to everybody attending this year’s Forum. The past 25 years have witnessed China’s rapid development as well as HSBC’s growth in China.

This year HSBC celebrates 160 years of connecting China to the world, and the world to China. We are proud of this. We are also excited by our role in helping China’s economy thrive in the future, including as new global trade and investment opportunities emerge.

China has long been one of the great centres of the world economy. A crossroads where people come to trade and to do business. For 160 years, HSBC has had firsthand experience of China’s economic history, working to support its integration into global finance and capital flows.

During that time, we have gained much experience from facilitating economic growth. Always adapting to the ever-present pace of modernisation and navigating the ebbs and flows of economic opportunities and challenges. At HSBC, we have always viewed this as a partnership based on progress.

Today, like many other moments in history, we are living through a period of rapid change. One accelerated by advances in technology, but also the changing contours of global economic development, as new and emerging growth patterns change the shape of the world in which we live.

We are seeing supply chains reconfigure, reform and new trade routes emerge to serve the needs of new rising economies, and changing demands in those more established.

We have identified five forces driving the transformation.

First, trade and investment flows continue to reshape, refashion, and reconfigure. This is opening new opportunities for businesses at both ends of the ASEAN-China corridor, with Chinese companies investing heavily in ASEAN production to serve consumers in the region and beyond. Beyond this, Chinese businesses are becoming more global, changing the patterns of production and consumption.

Second, consumption is shifting from goods to services, accelerated by technological advancements. In 2023, global services exports reached $7.9 trillion, marking an 8% annual increase. There is an opportunity for all economies to benefit from the growing importance of trade in services, but policy barriers to trade in services are often more complex than those in goods.

Third, e-commerce platforms are set to be pivotal drivers of future world trade. The market continues to grow exponentially and is set to reach almost $26 trillion by 2028, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 19% from 2021. Firms in all markets can capitalise on this trend but will rely on being able to utilise advancements in technology such as AI, machine learning, and data analytics, which makes tech enablement and harnessing the power of technology a necessary ingredient for enduring success.

Fourth, the landscape of global trade is being influenced by the transition to a new, sustainable economy. Companies and governments seeking to embed sustainability into supply chains are increasingly working with partners that have transparent reporting standards and environmentally responsible practices. China has been successful in adopting innovative technologies to strengthen and transform its supply chains to this end. And with continued investment, including into research and development, China is poised to lead the future of technology-driven, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.

Fifth, international commerce is being increasingly shaped by digitalisation. By enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing transparency, trade digitalisation has the potential to transform global commerce and boost global trade. However, its full benefits can only be realised through global collaboration and partnership between businesses, banks, industry bodies and governments.

Policy initiatives can help countries to take advantage. For example, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law introduced the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records, which has been a key enabler of digital trade financing and paperless trade facilitation, ultimately supporting increasing volumes of trade for those markets and organisations that align to its framework.

I am pleased that HSBC is submitting a paper that will discuss these important topics in more detail.

Today, the China Development Forum plays a significant role in shaping future dialogue, just as it has been doing for 25 years. The discussion and debate it fosters fires imaginations about what is possible and how the countless opportunities of tomorrow can be seized today.

HSBC is proud to have been a part of the China Development Forum since its inception, just as we are proud to have played an important role in connecting China to the world throughout our 160-year history.

We look forward to continuing to do so in the future as new forces shape global trade and investment. And I look forward to discussing these topics further with you all at this year’s China Development Forum.

Thank you.