Background on Hong Kong and Shenzhen

About Hong Kong

Hong Kong plays a remarkable role as a place for multinational firms to access the strengths of the Greater-Pearl River Delta (PRD), China and the Asia Pacific region as a whole. In particular, its banking system, legal set-up, infrastructure and logistics are the top league by any standard. These advantages produce complementary strengths of Hong Kong and the rest of Pan-PRD by inputting professional knowledge, management skills and international experiences.

In 2008, Hong Kong’s GDP grew by 2.5% and reached USD 215.2 billion. The total value of trade in goods was USD 752.3 billion in 2008 and direct investment inflow was USD 55.9 billion in 2007. It has consistently retained its position as Asia’s second-largest destination for FDI after the Mainland.

Hong Kong is the preferred location in Asia for regional headquarters and offices. As of June 2008, a total of 3,882 overseas companies had regional operations in Hong Kong. This breaks down to 1,298 regional headquarters and 2,584 regional offices.

The implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central People’s Government further opens up new and exciting opportunities in the Mainland for both local and international companies and individual investors based in Hong Kong in the areas of trade in goods, trade in services, and trade and investment facilitation. It now provides preferential and accelerated market access to 40 key service sectors in the Mainland, as well as offering zero import tariffs on Hong Kong-made goods that meet the rules of origin.

About Shenzhen

Adamant to Hong Kong, Shenzhen economy has also been vigorous and growing at a fast but steady speed.  From 1980 to 2008, its annual average GDP growth rate was 26.5%.  In 2008, the GDP of Shenzhen amounted to RMB 780.6 billion and the GDP per capita surpassed USD 10,000, ranking the fourth and the first in the Mainland of China respectively; the total imports and exports reached USD 299.75 billion, among which the exports were USD 179.74 billion, ranking No. 1 for 16 consecutive years among all cities in the Mainland of China.  Its actual direct foreign investment totalled USD 4.03 billion and a total of 161 multinationals on the Global 500 list had invested in Shenzhen.