THE distance between Northern Ireland and Hong Kong is more than 9,600 km. Yet the UK government hopes that the former could become a modern-day version of the latter, post-Brexit.

In a keynote address on Sep 13, during last week’s Northern Ireland international investment conference in Belfast, UK minister Michael Gove asserted that Northern Ireland can become for the UK and the European Union (EU) what Hong Kong has been for East Asia.

It is an interesting vision that stems, in large part, from the unique position of Northern Ireland post-Brexit.