Press Release - September 8, 2005

Hong Kong remains the world's freest economy, according to the "Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report" jointly released today (September 8) by the Fraser Institute of Canada and the Cato Institute of the United States.

Welcoming the report, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Henry Tang, said he is pleased the international community has again reaffirmed the virtues the Government has been upholding to keep Hong Kong flourishing as a free market economy.

“With free competition and open market being our entrenched policy, Hong Kong will continue to practice the ‘Market Leads, Government Facilitates’ principle,” said Mr Tang.

“We will also strive to maintain our institutional strengths, including rule of law, free flow of capital and information, a level playing field, an efficient and corruption-free Government as well as a simple and low tax regime, which are the keys to our economic success,” he added.

Echoing Mr Tang’s remarks, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada), Mr Bassanio So, said he is pleased that Hong Kong remained in the first place in economic freedom with a rating of 8.7 (out of 10).

“Again, the report shows that Hong Kong is the ideal and preferred place for doing business in the world, especially for foreign companies, including those in Canada,” Mr So said. “We will continue to maintain these advantages and strengths – the core pillars of our success - that make our city a great place to do business and the fast track to the huge China market.”

The report compared the level of economic freedom in 127 economies. Apart from the overall top ranking, Hong Kong also ranks first in “freedom to trade internationally” and “regulation of credit, labour and business” and second in “size of government”.

Hong Kong is followed by Singapore, which was rated second, and by New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States, all as third.

The Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report measures the degree of economic freedom in individual economies by reference to the “Size of Government: expenditure, taxes and enterprises”, “Legal Structure and Security of Property Rights”, “Access to Sound Money”, “Freedom to Trade Internationally”, and “Regulation of Credit, Labour, and Business”.

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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]

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