Trade Minister Steve Ciobo is confident Australia and Hong Kong quikly seal a free trade pact.
Mr Ciobo is in Hong Kong on Tuesday to officially launch negotiations with his ministerial counterpart Gregory So Kam-leung.
The first round of talks will be held in Canberra later in May.
Mr Ciobo said a free trade deal with Hong Kong would complement an existing agreement with China.
"It would allow us to springboard off our relative economic strengths and capacities," he told AAP.
Hong Kong tariffs are already at zero but the focus of the deal would be locking in current favourable regulatory settings and openness for services, he said.
Mr Ciobo said the deal would be a boon for Australian legal, financial, education, travel, construction, mining, energy and transport services.
Hong Kong was Australia's 12th largest trading partner in 2015-16 with total two -way trading worth $15.3 billion, of which Aussie exports weighed in at $8.9 billion.
Mr Ciobo's visit to Hong Kong follows his participation at the Chinese government's One Belt One Road international summit in Beijing.
It was a showcase of China's grand trillion dollar transnational infrastructure building bonanza.
Australia is yet to formally sign up to the scheme and Mr Ciobo sees merit in China's vision but remains cautious.
He said there were "complementarities" between the government's plans to develop northern Australia and One Belt One Road initiative but he emphasised they were "separate".
* Lisa Martin travelled to Beijing as a guest of the Chinese embassy in Canberra for the One Belt One Road Forum.
