To echo the Chief Executive, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa's vision of building Hong Kong as a world-class city, the Commissioner for Tourism and Director-General of Invest Hong Kong, Mr. Mike Rowse () said they were determined to make Hong Kong a world-class city for tourists as well.

Speaking at the luncheon of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association in Toronto, he said Hong Kong welcomed "anyone with a world-class product."

He said the very first step was the completion of the Disneyland theme park at Penny's Bay on Lantau Island in 2005.

Mr. Rowse, who took nine months to negotiate the deal with Disneyland for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, stressed that no special deal such as tax concessions had been granted to Disneyland because it was important to maintain a level playing field for anyone interested in investing in Hong Kong.

During his North America tour, Mr. Rowse visited the Disneyland in Orlando where he was told there was tremendous business potential when entrepreneurs returned after three to six months on what it first began as a holiday trip.

"We anticipate that inbound tourists will be between 12.5 and 13 million in 2000 which is close to record high,'' he said, adding that tourists arrivals went up by more than 15 per cent so far this year compared with 1999.

Turning to investment promotion, Mr. Rowse pointed out that they would have to respond quicker to approaches from companies interested in investing in Hong Kong, facilitating access to senior levels of the Government.

Also, their investment promotion units would have to be more focused on particular sectors of the economy and provide after-care service to these companies.

"Most of the new investment is done by those companies which are already there, with more than 60% in Hong Kong and over 80% in other economies," Mr. Rowse told the audience.

On the economic front, he forecast that GDP would grow between 4% and 6%, which he described as "realistic and quite comfortable."

The economy grew by 10.8% in the second quarter of 2000 compared with a year ago. In view of the remarkable performance, the Government had revised the forecast growth rate of GDP for 2000 from 6% to 8.5%, Mr. Rowse concluded.

For further information please contact Chief Information Officer, Jean Chan [email protected]



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