Financial Capsule

Hong Kong and Canada Sign Aircraft Maintenance MOU 

Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department and the Transport Canada, Civil Aviation Directorate, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Montreal earlier this year. 

This MOU is an expansion of the memorandum signed on December 5, 2005. It allows aircraft maintenance organizations in Hong Kong to provide maintenance service to aircraft registered in Canada without the need for additional approval from the Transport Canada, Civil Aviation Directorate (TCCA). Likewise, aircraft maintenance organizations in Canada may provide maintenance service to aircraft registered in Hong Kong. 

The Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr Norman Lo, said, "This is extremely beneficial to the fast expanding aviation industry. It is one of our goals to extend the mutual recognition arrangement to other authorities in the foreseeable future," he said.

2005 GDP up 7.3%

Hong Kong registered strong growth in 2005, with net output in transport, storage and communications growing 13.2% in real terms in the fourth quarter.

Gross domestic product rose 7.6% in real terms in the fourth quarter over a year earlier, compared with the 8.3% growth in the previous quarter. For 2005 as a whole, GDP grew 7.3% in real terms over 2004.

A continued increase in external trade, solid growth in local consumer demand and further vibrancy in inbound tourism all contributed to net output growth of 11.1% in real terms in the period in the wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels. 

The buoyancy in merchandise trade flows underpinned a 13.2% rise in real terms of net output in transport, storage and communications. 


2006 Tourism Outlook Strong

Visitor arrivals swelled in 2006, with the number of tourists in March passing the 2.1 million mark for a 14.8% increase over the same month last year.The figure took the cumulative total for the first quarter of 2006 to above 6 million.

Those statistics should be further bolstered by the May 1 extension of the Individual Visit Scheme to the six remaining provincial capitals of the Pan-Pearl River Delta (Pan-PRD), which brings the number of IVS cities to 44.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) will roll out extensive publicity campaigns in the new cities: Kunming, Nanchang, Guiyang, Huikou, Nanning and Changsha.

Since the introduction of the IVS in July 2003, some 12.27 Mainland residents have traveled to Hong Kong, as of March 2006.

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