Interview with Kiper Wang, Advisor, Department of Digital Government & Enterprise and Internet Business-Cross Border Business Development, OceanBest, Ant Group

Thanks to the implementation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promulgated in 2019, the region has been able to take full advantage of its excellent location, high degree of internationalisation, economic vibrancy, comprehensive industrial system, and innovation clusters, to foster highquality economic development.

Hong Kong is an important gateway for foreign economic cooperation in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), and indeed in China as a whole. Here, local companies can leverage the GBA’s geographical advantages to expand their international business, while mainland and overseas companies can also use it to reach new markets.

Increased economic activity and technological development in the region has driven huge demand for digital infrastructure to support it. This includes data storage.

OceanBase is a database technology company under the Ant Group. Backed by the tremendous computing power of Ali Cloud, its proprietary native distributed database and corresponding technologies give enterprises onestop data management solutions and services. It boasts that it offers customers lower data storage costs, supports online transactions and realtime statistical analysis, and provides database training, as well as assisting overall digital transformation.

The company’s Hong Kong operation is particularly active in exploring collaboration opportunities with government departments in the city and with financial institutions across the GBA. It also uses advanced financial and datahandling technologies to cater both to the local and crossboundary business needs of mainland and foreignfunded enterprises that have taken root in Hong Kong. This allows such enterprises to connect mainland and international markets more effectively, through Hong Kong.

In an interview [1], Kiper Wang stressed that Hong Kong has the twin advantages of enjoying strong support from the motherland and being closely connected to the world, adding that as well as being involved in the GBA it is a participant in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. OceanBase, he explained, makes use of Hong Kong’s business and financial services platforms, its sound communications infrastructure, and its free flow of information, to provide services to various companies and help them explore more business opportunities. For example, many Hong Kong companies engaged in finance and trading have business operations or partners in Southeast Asia, and these connections allow OceanBase to tap markets in that region.

Most Hong Kong and Southeast Asian companies are accustomed to using the services of data giants in Europe and the US, but Wang believes OceanBase’s advanced technology and costeffective solutions, as well as Hong Kong's extensive international network and welldeveloped intellectual property protections, give the company a strong hand as it seeks to expand.

For 10 straight years, he added, OceanBase has provided service support to meet the huge database computing needs stemming from the mainland’s “Double 11” shopping event. Currently, it offers inclusive and convenient digitalised consumer and financerelated services to individuals, as well as small and micro businesses, to help them carry out online transactions and activities. Additionally, it is collaborating extensively with global firms, helping them to leverage Hong Kong's efficient financial services in providing merchants and consumers with crossborder settlement services and related technological support.

[1] In the third quarter of 2023, HKTDC Research and the China business advisor seconded by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce in Hong Kong jointly interviewed the Hong Kong office of OceanBase.