*******************************************************
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's Principal Hong Kong Economic and Trade Representative in Japan, Mrs Jennie Chok, today (February 5) addressed about 160 people from political, business and media circles of Sapporo, updating them on Hong Kong's economy and the expanding scope of business opportunities for foreign investors available in Hong Kong.
Mrs Chok was speaking at the luncheon seminar on "Hong Kong - New Opportunities; New Attractions" organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo).
The Vice-Governor, Mr Kunihiko Yamamoto, from the Hokkaido Prefecture Government, gave welcoming and introductory remarks.
Mrs Chok said Hong Kong has long enjoyed close economic ties with the Hokkaido prefecture, and merchandise trade between the two places exceeded 10 billion yen in 2005.
She pointed out that more than 99% of this bilateral trade actually consisted of exports from Hokkaido to Hong Kong - exports that included mainly mechanical products and food products.
On the economy, Mrs Chok told the seminar that Hong Kong was enjoying sustained and broad-based recovery, with GDP growing by 7.3% in 2005 and 6.8% in the first three quarters of 2006.
She added that, backed by healthy growth in domestic demand as well as exports of goods and services, Hong Kong's GDP was forecast to grow by 6.5% in 2006.
"Foreign investment has been particularly strong, with inflows of FDI from Japan alone amounting to ?196.3 billion in 2005, representing an impressive 370% increase over 2004.
"The number of companies that have set up regional headquarters or regional offices in Hong Kong also reached an all-time high in 2005," Mrs Chok said.
There are more than 3,840 companies from all over the world that have either regional headquarters or regional offices in Hong Kong. More than 730 of them are Japanese companies, whose businesses cover various sectors such as banking, transportation and retail services.
The increasing economic integration with Mainland China and the latter's spectacular economic growth have opened up immense business opportunities for foreign investors.
"The increasing depth and breadth of our economic co-operation with the Mainland of China can best be demonstrated by the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed between our two economies," Mrs Chok said.
Under CEPA, all products of Hong Kong origin now enjoy tariff-free access to the Mainland Chinese market; and Hong Kong service suppliers in 27 service areas, including retail/distribution, logistics, construction, and audio-visual, etc., enjoy preferential treatment in the Mainland market.
Mrs Chok stressed that foreign companies based in Hong Kong were also able to enjoy these benefits, adding that Japanese companies were among the largest single group of foreign businesses that had taken advantage of CEPA to expand into China.
Mrs Chok referred to the US' Heritage Foundation which recently released its 2007 Index of Economic Freedom naming Hong Kong as the freest economy in the world for the 13th consecutive year. "According to the foundation's report, Hong Kong scores extremely well in almost all areas of economic freedom," she said.
At the luncheon seminar, Director, Japan of Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Ms Shigemi Furuta, and Regional Director, North Asia of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Mr Ken Kano, also spoke respectively on specific partnership opportunities open to Japanese businesses, and the latest tourist attractions campaigns in Hong Kong.
Ends/Monday, February 5, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:01
NNNN