The "Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" points out that upholding openness, cooperation, and mutual benefit is an inevitable requirement for Chinese-style modernization. Openness is a distinctive feature of Chinese-style modernization; promoting reform and development through openness is a successful practice of my country's reform and development, and also an important vehicle for promoting high-quality development in the western region. We must persist in promoting large-scale development through greater openness, improve the level of openness to both domestic and international markets in the western region, enhance the overall strength and sustainable development capacity of the region, and further form a new pattern of comprehensive protection, greater openness, and high-quality development.
In the new era, Qinghai is comprehensively deepening reform, adhering to the concept of "openness leading development and cooperation for a win-win future," and persisting in promoting high-quality development through high-level economic and trade exchanges and cooperation. Looking towards the "15th Five-Year Plan," we must follow the requirements of the 10th Plenary Session of the 14th Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to "implement proactive opening-up on a larger scale, in broader fields, and at a deeper level, strengthen cross-regional collaborative linkages," "promote a comprehensive leap in the level of open platforms, enhance the quality and efficiency of foreign trade, expand the space for two-way investment cooperation, and effectively improve the level of open economic development," striving to achieve major breakthroughs in strategic tasks concerning the overall modernization construction. In recent years, economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao have become increasingly close, with significant benefits and outstanding effectiveness in multi-field and multi-level cooperation in economic development, social progress, ecological protection, and technological innovation. Facts show that as long as Qinghai bases itself on its provincial conditions and the realities of Hong Kong and Macao, keeps pace with the times, innovates economic and trade cooperation models, and focuses its efforts on coordinating the "two relationships," grasping the "three main bodies," and realizing the "four flows," it can continuously expand new space for win-win development between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao, and powerfully promote Qinghai's high-level opening-up and high-quality development.
I. Properly coordinate the "two relationships"
The key to consolidating the foundation for economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao lies in properly coordinating the relationship between supply and demand, and between quantity and quality.
Coordinating the relationship between supply and demand is crucial for achieving a balance between supply and demand in Qinghai-Hong Kong and Qinghai-Macau economic and trade cooperation. Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macau exhibit differences and complementarities in their development stages, resource endowments, productivity levels, and policy systems, providing more opportunities for open cooperation and economic and trade exchanges. Based on a clear understanding of each region's resources, needs, and capabilities in cooperation areas, it is essential to fully follow market principles and coordinate the integration and efficient matching of resources and factors to achieve a dynamic balance between supply and demand in economic and trade cooperation. This balance highlights the importance of information symmetry and precise matching of supply and demand in terms of categories, structures, and technologies between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macau to enhance supply-demand adaptability, stimulate demand, and improve supply quality. Qinghai, with its unique plateau climate and low pest and disease advantages, grows pollution-free and highly nutritious cool-climate vegetables, which are highly favored by consumers in Hong Kong and Macau. To enter the Hong Kong and Macau markets on a large scale, industrially, and branded basis, certification from the Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre (STC) is necessary. Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao have closely connected the supply and demand sides in terms of variety, quantity, and inspection and testing. Focusing on policy empowerment, technology empowerment, and mechanism empowerment, Qinghai has comprehensively promoted certification cooperation with the Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre (STC). This has not only enabled the direct supply of Qinghai's "northern vegetables to the south" to Hong Kong and Macao, but also laid a solid foundation for Qinghai agricultural products to obtain internationally recognized certifications more quickly.
Balancing quantity and quality in economic and trade cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao aims to achieve a balance between the two. Qinghai boasts abundant ecological resources and distinctive ecological industries such as ecological agriculture, animal husbandry, ecotourism, and eco-industry. Hong Kong and Macao possess significant technological advantages, developed capital markets, and active market players. To promote cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao in a wider scope and across more fields, we should jointly grasp the strengths, weaknesses, and development trends of enterprises, industrial chains, and even industrial clusters. We must conduct in-depth analysis of the systematic and holistic alignment and integration from products and enterprises to industries, identify the points of convergence and leverage for collaborative development, and build a development pattern based on complementary advantages in traditional industries and led by strategic emerging industries and future industries. This will ensure that economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao achieve synchronized growth and progress in both quantity and quality across the three dimensions of "points, lines, and surfaces." Currently, economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai and Hong Kong are vividly demonstrating the practical application of balancing supply and demand, quantity and quality in their exchanges and cooperation, from a traditional bowl of Qinghai noodles to innovative Qinghai "family banquet" dishes and cooperation driven by green computing power for high-quality industrial development.
II. Grasp the "Three Main Elements"
A key driver of the remarkable achievements in economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao is the accurate understanding and effective utilization of the roles and responsibilities of the government, enterprises, and chambers of commerce.
Government leadership is the primary prerequisite for promoting high-quality economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao. Government leadership does not replace the role of the market, but rather signifies a proactive government that scientifically plans and meticulously deploys the top-level design for economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao, ensuring policy compatibility, mechanism synergy, and industrial integration. Simultaneously, it promotes micro-level enterprise connections, factor flows, and smooth channels, providing support and guarantees for achieving Pareto optimality in the multi-objectives of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation. From a practical perspective, it is precisely under the guidance and concern of Vice Chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, He Houhua and Leung Chun-ying, that the Qinghai Provincial People's Government, together with the Hong Kong and Macao SAR governments, has closely aligned itself with its respective advantages, characteristics, and development needs, strengthening top-level design, broadly building consensus, systematically and rationally planning, and orderly and effectively advancing cooperation. This has created a virtuous cycle of mutual benefit and complementarity between Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao, providing a stable and sustainable guarantee for the efficient connection and coordinated operation of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption in all aspects of Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Enterprises, as the main players in market activities, are a vital force in the integration of factors of production and industries. Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao fully respect the principal role of enterprises, stimulating their intrinsic motivation and innovation, exploring cooperation potential, stabilizing market expectations, and promoting the efficient allocation of different resources with unique characteristics and advantages among enterprises. This has extended related industrial chains, increased product added value, and injected new vitality into the economic development and social progress of Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao. In 2025, Qinghai Province organized nearly 400 entrepreneurs to participate in Qinghai-Hong Kong and Qinghai-Macao economic and trade exchange activities in multiple fields such as agricultural and livestock products, cultural tourism, and green computing power. Nearly 50 cooperation agreements were reached in areas such as funding, technology, and design, and a package of cooperation projects (valued at over 4 billion yuan) were signed. This achieved innovation in cooperation models across multiple fields, levels, and forms in the economic, social, and cultural sectors, accelerating the "going global" pace for more Qinghai products, enterprises, and industries, while also "bringing in" more high-quality resources and platforms from Hong Kong and Macao, comprehensively improving Qinghai's level of openness and development quality.
Chambers of commerce are an indispensable and crucial link in achieving optimal resource allocation under a market economy. They serve as vital links between the government and businesses, among businesses themselves, and between businesses and society, playing a vital role in facilitating connections and fostering strategic alliances. The chambers of commerce in Hong Kong and Macau are diverse in type, gather elites, and possess distinct characteristics, profoundly influencing regional political development, economic growth, and social stability. The governments of Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macau actively encourage the enthusiasm, participation, responsibility, and sense of mission of chambers of commerce. Important chambers of commerce organizations such as the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers' Association, the Macau Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, and the Fujian Chamber of Commerce proactively leverage their advantages of mutual benefit, self-discipline, non-governmental nature, and legal entity status to build platforms, provide services, and create opportunities. They are fully committed to promoting the efficient integration of enterprise and social resources in Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macau, effectively improving resource allocation efficiency, utilization value, and brand cultivation. This has not only broadened the network and cooperation opportunities for entrepreneurs in both regions but also expanded their social circles and friendship groups.
III. Effectively Implement the "Four Flows"
The driving force for high-quality development of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao lies in promoting efficient and positive interaction among the value flow, material flow, information flow, and energy flow of Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao, so as to achieve market-determined factor prices, free and orderly flow, and efficient and fair allocation.
Realizing value flow is the core of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao. To promote high-quality economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao, it is necessary to better leverage the role of trade activities as a carrier for the flow of goods and factors of production, promote market connectivity, industrial integration, innovation synergy, and rule alignment between Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao, and facilitate the transformation of resources, capital, and technology from Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao into added value throughout the entire process of product and service development, bringing added value to enterprises through technological and industrial awareness and market understanding. During the 2025 Qinghai-Hong Kong economic and trade exchange activities, Hong Kong Yongying Investment and China Travel Service (Qinghai) Co., Ltd. jointly invested 2 billion yuan and signed an agreement to jointly develop the Lenghu Astronomical Town and the Heidushan Scenic Area. This vividly demonstrates the positive interaction between Hong Kong's capital value and Qinghai's ecological value, not only achieving stable and innovative value appreciation of Hong Kong's capital but also promoting the transformation of Qinghai's ecological resource value into high-end tourism product value, comprehensively maximizing the added value of ecological tourism products and industrial elements in both regions.
The flow of materials is the foundation of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao. This flow encompasses the development, processing, and transportation of raw materials for trade activities between Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao, as well as the production and consumption of products. Regardless of the final product, enterprise, or industry benefited from these exchanges and cooperation, the flow of materials between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao is essential. In 2025, Qinghai, in collaboration with Maxim's Group in Hong Kong and The Parisian Macao, developed over ten "Qinghai Family Banquet" dishes using organic green ingredients such as yak meat, cordyceps, Tibetan sheep, and quinoa. These dishes were showcased in Hong Kong and Macao, establishing a "Qinghai brand" on the international culinary stage. This achievement reflects the successful integration of product supply and market demand. Each stage of this process—from the development, production, transportation, and processing of ingredients—involves the flow and interaction of different material forms and energy, constructing a transformation mechanism from material flow to value flow across the entire chain of ingredients, dishes, industry, and consumption. This continuously promotes Qinghai's openness and solidifies the foundation for cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Information flow serves as a bridge for economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao. From conceptual design to implementation steps, from single-product production to industrial chain formation, and from policy and institutional alignment to business environment integration, economic and trade exchange activities between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao all require maintaining information symmetry and positive interaction among the governments and markets of Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao. The governments highly value information exchange among themselves, which not only improves the matching, timeliness, and foresight of regional resource allocation for planning and coordinating economic and trade exchange and cooperation activities, but also lays the foundation for clarifying the development direction, optimizing cooperation methods, and improving the level of cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao. In 2024 and 2025, the themes of economic and trade exchange activities between Qingdao and Hong Kong were respectively determined as "Hong Kong and Qingdao Join Hands for Mutual Benefit and Win-Win" and "Sharing Reform Opportunities and Deepening Hong Kong-Qingdao Cooperation." The different themes conveyed information on development concepts, goals, tasks, and key measures at different stages of cooperation. This information flowed and formed an information network among different levels and entities, uniting all parties, reaching a consensus, and optimizing resource allocation, greatly contributing to the in-depth advancement of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Achieving energy flow is the guarantee for economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao. The energy flow in economic and trade activities refers to the various concrete and abstract forces and resources that promote the occurrence and development of "factor compatibility, enterprise docking, and industrial linkage" in these activities. It is the key energy driving the continuous interaction between the economic and social systems of Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao, and ensuring the efficient operation of the value flow, material flow, and information flow generated in this process. The convergence and flow of powerful energy among different entities and fields in Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao continuously fosters the integration of strengths between Qinghai and Hong Kong and Macao in multiple dimensions such as human resources, capital, technology, information, culture, and policies. This not only provides guidance and strategic planning for economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao, but also provides a solid guarantee for adhering to the combination of an effective market and a capable government, stimulating market vitality, improving allocation efficiency, and promoting efficient and orderly development. This allows economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Qinghai, Hong Kong, and Macao to continuously unleash market vitality and potential, becoming an important force driving Qinghai's high-level opening-up and high-quality development.
(Yang Haoran, author's affiliation: Qinghai Nationalities University)
Source: Qinghai Daily
