Opening Remarks by HKETO Director Ms Maureen Siu at a breakfast seminar in Ottawa

May 27th, 2009

“For Hong Kong, as an important gateway to China for foreign companies looking to expand their markets, and also the gateway through which Mainland companies look for investment opportunities around the world, Hong Kong will stand to gain and we will recover together with our motherland. Under the successful “one country two systems” formula specified in our constitution the Basic Law, Hong Kong continues to stand tall as an international financial centre in Asia…… “

Thank you Senator Poy

Mr Emerson, Members of Parliament and Senators, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. It is a great honour for the HK Economic & Trade Office to host this breakfast briefing. We started this in 2005. So this is the 5^th time we hold this briefing on HK on Parliament Hill. I want to thank Senator Poy, the HK-Canada Business Association in Ottawa, and the Canada-HK Parliamentary Friendship Group for their continuous support and contribution in making this event possible. I also want to thank all of you for your participation.

In recent months, our minds have focused on the global financial and economic crises and how best to revive our economies. Like Canada and all the economies in the world, HK is not spared. We face rising unemployment, and we expect difficult times will continue in the months ahead. Our Government has taken a series of measures, such as guaranteeing 100 per cent our bank deposits, providing jobs through many new public works and major infrastructural projects, and offering loan guarantees to small and medium sized enterprises, etc. Most importantly, we continue our commitment to free trade and open market under the principle of ‘small government, big markets’, and to fight against protectionism – as they are the key elements to global recovery.

Earlier in April, the World Bank predicted that China’s economy would begin to recover in the second half of this year, as the massive stimulus packages by the Government kicked in. It predicted that this would also help to stabilize economies throughout Asia. For Hong Kong, as an important gateway to China for foreign companies looking to expand their markets, and also the gateway through which Mainland companies look for investment opportunities around the world, Hong Kong will stand to gain and we will recover together with our motherland. Under the successful “one country two systems” formula specified in our constitution the Basic Law, Hong Kong continues to stand tall as an international financial centre in Asia, as the freest economy in the world as ranked by the Fraser Institute here and the Heritage Foundation in the US for decades now since they started their ranking exercises. Two days ago, the International Institute for Management Development, IMD, has also just announced in their ‘World Competitivenss Ranking’ that HK ranks second only to the U.S. Yes, to stay competitive, we will continue our low tax policy – we maintain our salaries tax at 15 % and profit tax 16.5%. We are also working to strengthen further our integration with the Mainland of China. Our goal is to develop the Pearl River Delta region into one of the most competitive regions in the world by 2020. With full support from the Central Govt, we will fast track many major cross boundary projects, including the 29-kilometres HK-Macao-Zhuhai bridge, the high speed rail link that will join HK and Guangzhou in less than 45 minutes. And there will be joint projects between the HK International Airport and the Shenzhen Airport. Our unique free trade pact with the Mainland – what we call the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or CEPA, has just been further expanded with a 6^th extension to cover even more sector and benefitting even more business to gain better access to the China market. Let me just say, while we do face many challenges, Hong Kong is on the right path.

With the already close economic and social ties between Canada and HK, it is important that we contemplate how we could fully utilize the ties to benefit both economies further. Today we have a heavy weight speaker who will do just that. Mr David Emerson visited HK and Mainland China many times. With his extensive experience and wide networks in both the public and private sectors in Canada, HK and Mainland China, he is the best person to speak on this subject and we are very privileged to have him here today to share with us his insights. And I sincerely hope that after this, with your support and our joint efforts, we will see even closer partnership and cooperation between HK and Canada.

Thank you.