On the 2nd, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Qiu Yinghua, stated that in the past year, despite facing various challenges brought by geopolitics and trade protectionism, Hong Kong's foreign trade has shown strong resilience, following closely behind mainland China, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands, ranking as the fifth largest commodity trading economy in the world, and the results are encouraging. According to the Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report released by the World Trade Organization, Hong Kong will become the fifth largest commodity trading economy in the world by 2025, jumping two places from the previous year. The total volume of commodity trade increased by 17.5% year-on-year to $1585 billion, accounting for 3% of the global total. Qiu Yinghua said that Hong Kong has always adhered to free trade, firmly supported and maintained a rules based multilateral trading system, and provided predictable and transparent markets for trading partners. Hong Kong has also fully leveraged its institutional advantages under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy and a highly internationalized business environment, becoming one of the most important and flexible commercial and trade gateways in the region. He said that the report confirmed that a series of measures taken by the SAR government to promote trade had achieved certain results, including expanding economic and trade networks, strengthening investment attraction, deepening ties with the international market, expanding emerging markets, strengthening support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting Hong Kong's participation in the construction of the "the Belt and Road" and expanding the domestic market, making Hong Kong continue to play a key role in international trade. Qiu Yinghua mentioned that this year is the beginning of the national "15th Five Year Plan", and the SAR government is preparing a five-year plan for Hong Kong. It will continue to make every effort to promote trade, focus on strengthening assistance for mainland enterprises to "go global" through Hong Kong as a platform, explore new economic growth points, and play the role of "super contacts" and "super value-added people". (New Society)