Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang recalled a 2006 mission to Kazakhstan and paid tribute to three late financial leaders who joined the trip.
Ma’s remark came as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu led a delegation to depart for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on Sunday. The visit aims to establish new trade routes and deepen cooperation between Hong Kong and the two Central Asian nations.
As one of the members of the delegation, Ma said the trip to Kazakhstan “brought back so many memories.” He said he once led a mission — “very small by comparison” as he wrote — in 2006 to Kazakhstan to promote Hong Kong as a financial center.
He recalled that the delegation included Paul Chow Man-yiu, the then chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), and Lawrence Fok Kwong-man, who was then Head of Listing, Regulation and Risk of HKEX.
Among the group was the then chairman of the Hong Kong Stockbrokers Association Tony Espina, Ma added. Espina became the chairman of a bank in Kazakhstan around a decade later.
Recalling the historical visit, Ma noted with sadness that all three prominent financial figures have since passed away.
"Sadly, three of them are in heaven now," Ma wrote, sharing two archival photographs from the trip.
One of the images captured Chow and Espina enjoying a lighthearted moment at a local Kazakh market, sampling a traditional delicacy of horse intestines.
