From June 1 to 5, 2026, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Lee Ka-chiu, led Hong Kong's largest cross-sector business delegation to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Relying on Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" internal and external communication endowments, Hong Kong performed its functions as a "super contact and super value-added person" and achieved major economic and trade results at the end of the visit: Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. China has implemented a total of 96 cooperation agreements and memorandums, with a total cooperation amount of more than US$1.65 billion (nearly HK$13 billion). Eight major cooperation consensuses have been reached in the fields of high-level government docking, cross-border investment and financing, aviation and navigation, taxation and investment agreement negotiations, scientific and technological innovation and green industries, etc., laying a policy and commercial foundation for Hong Kong enterprises to deploy in Central Asia, and for Central Asian enterprises to use Hong Kong to internationalize.
At this key moment of a high-level visit, following the formal signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between the Kazakhstan Almaty Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm and the Hong Kong Belt and Road General Chamber of Commerce in Astana on June 2, on June 4, under the witness of Hong Kong SAR Chief ExecutiveLee Ka-chao and Uzb ekistan Presidential Strategic Development Advisor Sador Umurzakov, Jingsh Law Firm Uzbekistan Tashkent Cooperation Office and China The Hong Kong Belt and Road General Chamber of Commerce officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement**.Li Hao, equity partner of Jingsh Law Firm's headquarters, director of the Tashkent Cooperation Office of Uzbekistan, and executive director of the Hong Kong Cooperation Office, signed the contract on behalf of Reiza Marhaba, executive director of the Kazakhstan Almaty Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm, and Deng Ying, executive director of the Uzbekistan Tashkent Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm, attended the ceremony. The achievement of this strategic cooperation is not only a further extension and deepening of the cooperation results with Kazakhstan, but also marks another key layout of Jingsh Law Firm in Central Asia following the establishment of Jingsh Law Firm’s cooperation office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It is a key node for the implementation of Jingsh Law Firm’s international strategy of “borrowing ports to go overseas and deepening cultivation in Central Asia”.
Signing ceremony (third from left: Li Hao, equity partner of Jingsh Law Firm Headquarters, director of the Tashkent Cooperation Office in Uzbekistan, and executive director of the Hong Kong Cooperation Office)
Left: Reyza Marhaba, Executive Director of the Kazakhstan Almaty Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm
Center: Li Hao, Equity Partner at Jingsh Law Firm Headquarters, Director of the Cooperation Office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Executive Director of the Cooperation Office in Hong Kong, China
Right: Deng Ying, Executive Director of Uzbekistan Tashkent Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm
As of the signing of the contract, Jingsh Law Firm has completed the overall layout of legal services in the five Central Asian countries. The overseas cooperation offices in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan have all been put into operation. The preparations for the Turkmenistan Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm continue to advance, and an integrated cross-border legal service network of "one appeal, five countries linkage" has been established. Among them, the Uzbekistan Cooperation Office of Jingsh Law Firm, as the core fulcrum of the southern route of Central Asia, closely follows the key industry plan of Uzbekistan's "2030 National Development Strategy" and has established a professional team that is proficient in Chinese, Russian, English, and Uzbekistan and has practical experience in transnational jurisdictions. It focuses on the five major tracks of energy and minerals, infrastructure projects, cross-border investment, international trade, and commercial compliance, and continues to provide full-chain legal service support for Chinese and Hong Kong enterprises to land in Uzbekistan.
Relying on the advantages of global network in the five Central Asian countries, this strategic cooperation has finalized five major directions of normalized cooperation: investment legal services for Hong Kong capital in Central Asia, capitalization and operation of high-quality Central Asian assets in Hong Kong, full-cycle legal risk control of cross-border projects, pre-emptive resolution of cross-border commercial disputes, and accurate docking of resources across the entire industrial chain of the two places. The cooperation will deeply explore Hong Kong's core advantages in international investment and financing, cross-border investment banking, and overseas listing and fundraising, connect high-quality industrial resources such as minerals, green energy, modern agriculture, and infrastructure in the five Central Asian countries, open up a two-way channel for "Hong Kong capital to go to Central Asia for industrial implementation, and Central Asia's local leaders to use Hong Kong to enter the global capital market," and accurately undertake the investment needs of this Hong Kong and Central Asia business delegation for the implementation of the entire industry chain.
This signing is a benchmark project for high-level economic and trade empowerment of foreign-related legal services, and has multiple strategic significance. At the national strategic level, the cooperation is deeply in line with the development requirements of China-Uzbekistan’s all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era, aligning the “Belt and Road Initiative” with the development plans of Central Asian countries, consolidating hard cross-border economic and trade connectivity through legal service soft connectivity, and assisting the construction of a China-Central Asia community with a shared future. At the regional coordination level, we innovate the cross-border cooperation model of "Mainland Law Firms + Hong Kong Business Associations + Central Asian Territory Institutions" to maximize the value of Hong Kong as an Asia-Europe hub. At the industrial implementation level, we comprehensively escort the investment layout of Hong Kong-funded and Chinese-funded enterprises in Central Asia, promote Central Asia’s characteristic energy, minerals, agriculture and other high-quality resources to connect with domestic industrial chains through the Hong Kong capital market, and continue to expand the scale of bilateral trade.
Li Hao, equity partner at the headquarters of Jingsh Law Firm, director of the Tashkent Cooperation Office of Uzbekistan, and executive director of the Hong Kong Cooperation Office, said that relying on the country’s 2030 strategy, Uzbekistan has entered a window period for industrial transformation, rapid development of digital economy and renewable energy, and foreign-related legal services have ushered in an explosive period. This cooperation achieves a deep coupling between Hong Kong's top financial service system and Uzbekistan's local legal services: on the one hand, relying on Hong Kong's mature investment, financing and risk control system, it empowers Hong Kong's senior experts to cultivate Uzbekistan's high-quality green electricity, rare minerals, and digital technology innovation tracks; on the other hand, it helps Uzbekistan's local companies use the Hong Kong platform to achieve overseas listings, cross-border bond issuance, and global market expansion, establishing a two-way reciprocal pattern of "Uzbek enterprises use Hong Kong to go overseas, and Hong Kong businessmen to take root in Central Asia", and build a legal high-speed channel for cross-border investment in Hong Kong and Uzbekistan.
At present, the economic and trade benefits between Hong Kong and Uzbekistan continue to be released. Negotiations on investment protection and double taxation avoidance agreements between the two places are steadily advancing. Uzbekistan’s free economic zone tax reduction and exemption, land support and other investment promotion policies have been implemented, and the cross-border business environment continues to be optimized. In the next step, the two parties will take this strategic cooperation as a starting point, adhere to the main line of cooperation of "Hong Kong empowerment, legal and business linkage, and two-way interconnection", deeply explore the advantages of Hong Kong's Asia-Europe hub location, and use legal services as a link to continue to deepen Hong Kong's green energy, digital science and technology innovation, Practical cooperation across the entire chain of cross-border logistics will continue to enrich Hong Kong’s implementation of connecting Central Asia and radiating Asia and Europe. It will help Hong Kong open up a new blue ocean of Central Asian economies with professional foreign-related legal services and write a new model for the global development of China’s foreign-related legal service institutions.