Back to press release
Press Release - August 11, 1999

Advantages of Doing Business in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has all the vital components and incentives for Canadian entrepreneurs to establish successful businesses in the territory, the Acting Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada, Mr. Eddie Cheung, said today (Wednesday).

Besides, Mr. Cheung said, the SAR had the added advantage of being the pre-eminent gateway for the expansion of trade and investment in the vast market of mainland China.

Speaking at a business seminar entitled "Doing Business with China and Hong Kong" in Vancouver, Mr. Cheung said the Government was developing Hong Kong as an IT hub and actively promoting e-commerce. This meant numerous business opportunities in Hong Kong.

Speakers at the seminar, organised by the Canada China Business Council and Aerospace North America, included corporate CEO's, bankers and government officials.

The attractions of doing business in Hong Kong, which are the envy of many countries, included:

  • World's freest economy (Heritage Foundation's 1999 Index of Economic Freedom)
  • World's third most competitive economy (World Economic Forum and IMD)
  • Open economy, consistent free trade and free enterprise policies
  • No foreign exchange controls. No restriction on repatriation of profits
  • Low tax rates and simple tax system: 16% corporate profits tax and 15% maximum salaries tax
  • Foreign and local businesses operate on a level playing field buttressed by the rule of law and a clean, efficient administration
  • One of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructure in the world. Nearly 400,000 km of optical fibre has been laid.

Mr. Cheung pointed out that Hong Kong will spend more than US$30 billion on major road, rail and land developments over the next five years and this will create a huge demand for engineering consultancy and Environmental Impact Assessment services.

On Hong Kong's aim to become the IT hub of the region, he said, the Cyberport project comprised development of an ultra-modern intelligent building complex, equipped with state-of-the-art telecommunications and information backbones to meet the needs of IT companies, such as IBM, Intel, Yahoo!, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, etc, that have already signed letters of intent to become anchor tenants of the Cyberport.

"Hong Kong is also developing a Chinese language interface based on the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 10646 standard and promoting a unitary coding system to facilitate the development of Chinese-language based software and content."

Regarding the growing number of Internet users and electronic commerce, Mr. Cheung said: "With excellent telecommunications networks and our creative use of IT, we have the potential to develop Hong Kong into an Internet traffic and content hub, and supply Internet services and content to the rest of the world.

"Also, given our unique position as a SAR of China and our bilingual capability, we can serve as a digital intermediary for those wanting to do business with the Mainland.

"To promote e-commerce, the Hongkong Post plans to provide public certification authority services by the end of the year. At the same time, we welcome other bodies in the private sector to establish certification authorities to serve the needs of the community. The number of certification authorities to be established in Hong Kong is entirely determined by market forces.

"The use of public/private key encryption mechanism, digital signatures and the issue of digital certificates by certification authorities will help provide a secure and trustworthy framework to encourage and facilitate the adoption of electronic transactions in Hong Kong.

"The Government will launch the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme in the latter half of next year. Members of the public will be able to pay tax and government charges on-line through computers at home or installed at public libraries and community halls. Business can also seek licensing requirements information on-line. The introduction of ESD will pave the way for the development of e-commerce in Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong is a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. We invite Canadian companies to bid for Hong Kong Government's projects. Our procurement principle is free and open to competition among domestic and foreign suppliers. No favours. No discrimination." he added.

For further information please contact Chief Information Officer Frank Chuan.

Back to press release