Press Release - Marh 31, 2005
Mayor Hazel McCallion of the City of Mississauga today (Thursday) joined a team of trade experts to encourage Canada’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use Hong Kong as their “Smart Link” to China, while devising workable ways to sell their products, technology and know-how to the world’s fastest growing economy.

Addressing the "Hong Kong: Your Smart Link to China" business forum organized by the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association in Toronto, Mayor McCallion strongly advised the SMEs to "go through Hong Kong to China as Hong Kong provides the expertise and the economic infrastructures that are crucial for Canadian companies to get into China’s lucrative market." The Mayor visited Hong Kong late last year with "Team Mississauga" and witnessed the tremendous economic growth in the territory.

She cited examples such as Hong Kong's legal system, which offers a reassuring setting for litigation, arbitration, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Mayor McCallion said by using Hong Kong as the link, Canadian companies would have a better chance of getting a settlement under Hong Kong’s Common Law system should there is a business dispute.

Echoing the Mayor's views, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada) (HKETO), Mr Bassanio So, listed out the distinctive advantages that Hong Kong offers in doing business through Hong Kong with China during his presentation. They include: its proximity to China; it being a strategic two-way platform for trade with and investment in Mainland China; its economic co-operation with China; it being the world’s freest economy, and its independent judicial system.

Speakers from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Canadian Association of Importers & Exporters, Ontario Exports Inc., and Export Development Canada, as well as representative from Canadian companies which have scored successful results in doing business with China through Hong Kong – Jamieson Laboratories Ltd., Delcan Corporation, Patent and Trade Mark Agent Nelligan O’Brien Payne, and Goodmans LLP, all share their experiences on using Hong Kong as their imperative trade platform, and their business relationship with Hong Kong and China.

The speakers also touched on various critical issues that are of concerns among Canadian business people, such as protection of intellectual property rights in China, risk management in doing business in China, and export financing.

The “Hong Kong: Your Smart Link to China” business forum was supported by the HKTDC, the HKETO, Invest Hong Kong, and sponsored by the Cathay Pacific Airways.
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For more information, please contact: Stephen Siu, Assistant Director (Public Relations) of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office at: (416)924-5544 or email: [email protected] or Elison Chu, Senior Information Officer, [email protected]

Click here to download a Chinese version of this press release in PDF format.