Jin Guowei, Deputy Mayor of Dalian, led a delegation from Dalian to visit AMTD to explore opportunities for cooperation

On Jan 22nd, during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Jin Guowei, Deputy Mayor of Dalian, led a delegation from Dalian to visit AMTD House and held bilateral meetings with Calvin Choi, Chairman and CEO of AMTD Group and the management of AMTD. The two parties exchanged opinions on promoting the strategic cooperation between Dalian Municipal Government and AMTD, and agreed to establish a closer comprehensive strategic partnership especially in the fields of innovation economy, Fintech, talent training, shipping finance and international capital market. Cong Ke, director of Dalian Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Xue Yanxiang, director of Dalian Economic Cooperation Service Center, Luo Weixing, deputy director of Dalian Municipal Government Office and Li Xiang, deputy director of Dalian Municipal Bureau of Commerce also attended the meeting.

Calvin Choi welcomed Jin Guowei, Deputy Mayor of Dalian and the delegation from Dalian and showed appreciation for their attention on AMTD. Calvin Choi said, “During the annual meeting of the Summer Davos in Dalian last year, Dalian left a deep impression on me as a city with a high level of internationalization, profound industrial experience, comprehensive urban resource endowment, numerous universities and beautiful environment. As a comprehensive financial institution rooted in Hong Kong, based in the Greater Bay Area, backed by the motherland and facing the globe, AMTD is diversifying into a multi-business comprehensive conglomerate with business lines in commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, risk solutions, strategic investment, real estate and education. AMTD thinks highly of Dalian as an international shipping center and a logistics center in Northeast Asia, a regional financial center and a strategic hub connecting Northeast China and East China. We hope to have the opportunity to invest in Dalian.”

Jin Guowei, Deputy Mayor of Dalian praised the development of AMTD in recent years, and sincerely welcomed outstanding Hong Kong enterprises like AMTD to Dalian for business and investment to strengthen the economic and trade cooperation among the mainland, especially Bohai Bay and Northeast Asia, Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Jin Guowei introduced that Dalian has an advantageous coastal port location and is internationalized. Dalian is an industrial center for the key technologies and core areas, an economic center in Northeast Asia and a regional financial center reliant on Dalian Commodity Exchange. Dalian has abundant talent reserves and has been strongly supporting IT and Fintech innovation industry in recent years. Jin Guowei encouraged AMTD to conduct cooperation with Dalian in financial openness and Fintech and showed support for excellent Hong Kong corporates represented by AMTD to take the lead in financial investment and layout in mainland cities such as Dalian. Moreover, as a Fintech city, Dalian has unique resources in Fintech innovation field: IT software outsourcing industry entered Dalian years ago and has accumulated large numbers of talents with both finance and technology knowledge and Dongbei University of Finance & Economics has a deep and broad talent pool. Jin Guowei welcomed AMTD to strengthen the cooperation with Dalian in Fintech innovation.

Calvin Choi expressed sincere gratitude to Jin Guowei and Dalian Municipal Government for their support to AMTD and showed AMTD's determination to expand its investment and development in Dalian. Calvin Choi said 2019 was a year of great achievement for AMTD. In August last year, AMTD International (NYSE: HKIB), the investment banking platform of AMTD Group, was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange with market capitalization exceeding $2 billion. AMTD International is the first Hong Kong financial institution listed on the NYSE, one of the top 5 independent investment banks listed in the US as measured by market capitalization, and the largest independent investment bank in Asia. Airstar Bank, jointly established by AMTD Group and Xiaomi Corporation, successfully secured one of eight virtual banking licenses in Hong Kong and will launch business soon. Meanwhile, AMTD Digital, the digital economy platform of AMTD Group is also applying for a digital bank license in Singapore. AMTD will leverage its ‘SpiderNet’ ecosystem, strong international capital market exposure and innovative layout in digital economy to strengthen the cooperation with Dalian. Relying on Dalian’s position as regional center, AMTD can actively strengthen its business layout in Northeast Asia. At the same time, AMTD will act as "super connector" to facilitate economic and trade cooperation between enterprises in the Greater Bay Area and Northeast Asia and leveraging on Dalian's advantages, the cooperation can extend to fields such as innovation economy, Fintech, talent training, shipping finance and international capital market.