Background on Hong Kong and Zhuhai

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 2007, Hong Kong’s GDP grew by 6.3% and reached USD 206.7 billion. The total value of trade in goods was USD 651.5 billion and direct investment inflow was USD 44.9 billion in 2006. 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 2007, a total of 3,890 overseas companies had regional operations in Hong Kong. This breaks down to 1,246 regional headquarters and 2,644 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 38 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 Zhuhai

Zhuhai is located at the south of Guangdong province and by the west bank of the Pearl River estuary, it has become a city featuring foreign trade and inward investment. The import and export value for 2007 totaled USD 39.87 billion. Industrial output contributed by large-scale foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) reached RMB 177.26 billion, accounting for 72.54% of the industrial output of the city. Export value by FIEs was USD 15.43 billion, 83.54% of the city's total.

Priority sectors include electronic information manufacturing, household electric appliance manufacturing, software, bio-medicine and medical appliance, petrochemicals, transportation equipment manufacturing, tourism, exhibition and logistics.                                                                                        

By December 2007, 10,341 FDI projects had been approved. The industrial output contributed by large scale FIEs was RMB 177.26 billion, 72.5% of the city's total while the export registered USD 15.432 billion, 83.54% of the total.

The number of newly approved foreign-funded projects in 2007 reached 761, of which 30 were construction or expansion of Fortune 500 enterprises, 14 more than that in 2006.