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Bilateral trade between Hong Kong and Japan has grown healthily over the past few years and last year it was worth more than US$52 billion, about 70% of which consisted of Japanese exports to Hong Kong.
This was stated by the Principal Representative of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo (HKETO) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Mrs Jennie Chok, during a business seminar in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan today (March 6).
Mrs Chok said that taking the bilateral trade volume as a whole, Japan was Hong Kong's third largest trading partner in the world, or second largest trading partner in Asia, and reciprocally, Hong Kong was Japan's ninth largest trading partner.
"Between 2003 and 2007, average annual bilateral trade between our two economies grew by 7.2%," she said.
On economic ties between Aichi Prefecture and Hong Kong, Mrs Chok said that merchandise trade between the two places exceeded 384 billion yen in 2006, representing a growth of 5% over the previous year.
"As a matter of interest, Hong Kong is Aichi's 10th largest export market and that more than 97% of our bilateral trade actually consists of exports from Aichi to Hong Kong. No doubt Toyota cars make up an important part of those exports, as almost all the taxis that run in Hong Kong are Toyota LPG five-seater saloons," she said.
She noted that at present some 3,900 international companies maintained regional headquarters or regional offices in Hong Kong and among these, around 750 were established by Japanese enterprises whose businesses covered electronics, banking, transportation and retail services.
At the seminar, Mrs Chok took the opportunity to update the audience on Hong Kong's latest economic developments.
She said Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by an average of 7.7% per annum in real terms between 2004 and 2006.
"As announced by our Financial Secretary in Hong Kong last week, there was a 6.3% increase in our real GDP last year, and Hong Kong's economy is forecast to grow by 4-5% this year," she said.
Mrs Chok also outlined Hong Kong's strengths as a global financial centre as well as an ideal place to tap into the enormous potential of the Chinese market.
In conclusion, she called on Japanese companies, especially small and medium enterprises, to use Hong Kong as a base to test the water in the China market for the first time.
Attended by more than 100 executives from the business and financial sectors, the seminar today was jointly organised by the HKETO, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Ends/Thursday, March 6, 2008
Issued at HKT 14:10
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