Walking into the third edition of the Global Prosperity Summit, which was held from May 19 to 21 in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I was struck not by the grandeur of the setting or the caliber of the names on the speaker list, but by something quieter: the sound of conversation.

Diplomats from China were exchanging cards with European executives. Shanghai think-tank scholars were debating Malaysian strategists. United States investors were leaning in to hear a Hong Kong banker explain the offshore renminbi market.

In an age when the world's great capitals increasingly seem to be talking past one another, here was a room in which they were, at last, talking to one another. That, more than any communique, is the measure of what Hong Kong is and what it can yet become.

The event, jointly convened by the Savantas Policy Institute, the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, has matured remarkably since its inception in 2024. This year's gathering opened with a keynote speech from Han Zhiqiang, vice-president of the China Public Diplomacy Association, who offered forward-looking insights into the China-proposed Global Governance Initiative. He noted that the international landscape is beset by mounting instability and uncertainty, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, geopolitical conflicts continue to flare up, and development gaps are widening. These developments, he said, have made reform of global governance an urgent task for all peoples.

Few would disagree with the diagnosis. The harder question is where the work of repair can credibly begin. And here, Hong Kong's case is not merely rhetorical but structural.

Consider the substance. Under the "one country, two systems" principle, with the staunch support of the central government, Hong Kong's role as an international financial center has continued to develop, its status steadily reinforced and elevated — which is why the country chose this city to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers' Meeting in October. This is not a ceremonial honor. Heads of finance departments of APEC member economies and representatives of international organizations will gather in Hong Kong, experiencing firsthand the city's advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland while being closely connected to the world. Furthermore, in November, leaders themselves will convene in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, for the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Together, these two events will form the most significant diplomatic moment of the year in Asia.

That sequencing — Hong Kong before Shenzhen, finance before leaders — is not an accident of the calendar. It reflects a sophisticated thinking that, in a fractured world, China's southern coast can serve as the most credible meeting ground available.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the Hong Kong Executive Council, captured the logic precisely in her welcoming remarks. She observed that amid uncertainties, Hong Kong continues to stand out as an oasis of stability, connectivity and opportunity, and that the Global Prosperity Summit can serve as a platform for dialogue, exchange and pragmatic cooperation.

Yet platforms, however polished, are useless without traffic. And here is where Hong Kong's recent figures speak louder than any communique. The economy expanded 5.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, a meaningful acceleration from the 4 percent of the preceding quarter. Hong Kong has reclaimed its place as the world's fifth-largest merchandise trading entity. The International Monetary Fund has reaffirmed the city's role as an international financial center and super-connector. These are not the numbers of a city in retreat; they are the numbers of a city that has chosen its lane and is pulling ahead.

Equally important is what is being built behind the headlines. The San Tin Technopole and the Hetao Hong Kong Park sit at the heart of the Northern Metropolis, a HK $224 billion ($28.6 billion) infrastructure project that will develop roughly 30,000 hectares — about a third of Hong Kong's territory — along the Shenzhen border. Authorities have said the development will create 650,000 jobs and help ease the city's housing crisis by providing homes for 2.5 million people. Roughly 80 technology companies and institutions have already established a presence in the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Cooperation Zone, which officially began operations in December, and nearly 90 percent of the space in the park's two finished wet-lab buildings has been leased, with another five buildings due for completion this year.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said the government plans to complete dedicated legislation for the Northern Metropolis this year to speed up the megaproject's development.

Pair this hardware with the soft infrastructure now taking shape — a third medical school, the Northern Metropolis University Town, the Greater Bay Area Clinical Trial Collaboration Platform, a forthcoming Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation — and the picture sharpens. We are not, as some foreign commentators continue to insist, merely a financial entrepot — a warehouse or distribution center for goods — clinging to past glories. We are becoming an innovation economy with Chinese characteristics and global reach.

One of the event's most compelling contributions was the institutional vision it placed on the table. Ip and Li Kai-sheng, a professor at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, jointly proposed an "APEC Global Cities Network", an APEC Chinese Cities' network of cities that have hosted APEC meetings, and a council of APEC think tanks — networks designed to establish the foundation for building greater global regional cooperation and prosperity. This is precisely the kind of forward-looking architecture that multilateralism now requires. Leaders' meetings will continue to be photographed; but the deeper, enduring work of cooperation happens between them, at the level of cities, scholars and practitioners — and Hong Kong is positioning itself to anchor exactly that work.

Critics, of course, will argue that Hong Kong's pivot toward national strategy diminishes its international character. The evidence on the ground says the opposite. More than 40 countries from six continents have already signed the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation, which was inaugurated in Hong Kong as a new platform for advancing the rule of law in global governance. A city that hosts the world's mediators, the world's finance ministers, the world's Olympic federations and the world's police chiefs in a single calendar year is not a city turning inward.

The author is a convener at China Retold, a member of the Legislative Council, and a member of the Central Committee of the New People's Party.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.