【Friday Beyond Spotlights III】Nicholas Ho: Spearheading the Belt and Road Initiative

Hosted by Patrick Tsang, episode 4 of Season 3 features Mr. Nicholas Ho, Commissioner for Belt and Road. Nicholas is not only a young, award-winning architect but also dedicated to public service and policy advocacy. Last year, he made the decision to step back from his role in his family firm and join the government on its efforts in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Hong Kong and the BRI

During the episode, Nicholas provided an update on the status of the BRI: “The Belt and Road Initiative was announced ten years ago by President Xi Jinping. Initially, there were about 60 countries as part of this initiative. Now it has grown to 150 countries, and it is the largest international cooperation platform aimed to build connectivity across different regions.” He also highlighted the BRI’s Five Connectivity pillars, spanning the realms of policy, infrastructure, trade, finance, and people-to-people connectivity.

As Commissioner for the BRI, Nick has been travelling extensively to build and promote partnerships and alliances. He described Hong Kong as a ‘super connector’ and elaborated on its dual role: “For example, international businesses, when they want to invest in Asia, often they will choose Hong Kong as the regional headquarter to access the Mainland market, the GBA market, and also the Asian market. For Mainland companies and GBA companies where they want to access the Belt and Road market, they would choose Hong Kong as a regional hub to access.” Nicholas believes that with its strength in finance, professional services, and innovation research, Hong Kong is well-placed to add extra value to both Mainland China as well as Belt and Road countries

Hong Kong in the future

In terms of how Hong Kong can apply its prowess in the five areas of connectivity put forward in the BRI, Nicholas places the priority on people-to-people connectivity. “I think the connectivity between people has to be strengthened,” he said. “And I think Hong Kong being such a diverse and international community on its own with international talent, services, students, all in one place, we are best suited to take up that role.”

Nicholas discussed the role Hong Kong can assume over the next decade in sustaining prosperity. After a decade of investments and building up connections, he stressed we have now reached the mobilization stage, “We must really fully utilize these trade deals, these agreements and also the connectivity to help bring our young entrepreneurs, our small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and international resources to jump in and to find the right project in the right region for them.” He pointed out that the threshold of doing regional business has dramatically reduced and Hong Kong stands to benefit from this transformative shift.

A father, an architect and a BRI Commissioner

As a person who carries numerous responsibilities and also a father of three, Nick admits that it is tough to balance the time spent between his family, public service and travel. “But I’m very, very lucky because I have a very good support system at home which allows me to really focus on work,” he adds.

Speaking of his design perspective as an architect and how it affects his current philosophy as the Commissioner for the BRI, Nicholas answered “For me, it has always been about the people; and I often tell my kids my role as an architect or my current role is hoping to leave this world a better place than we found it. And that is the dream.”