The measures taken by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government to stimulate the economy and recover from the economic downturn is proving to be successful, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada, Mr. Donald Tong, said today (Wednesday).

Mr. Tong who was speaking to graduate and post graduate students of the Concordia University at a seminar in Montreal said the latest growth figures showed that the territory's economy had a distinct rebound of 0.7% in the second quarter of 1999, reversing the declining trend since the first quarter of 1998. "We believe that our forecast growth of 0.5% for 1999 as a whole is achievable."

"I must say that all of the measures that we have taken have been helping us to recover from the downturn. The latest figure shows that the worst is now behind us," Mr. Tong said.

"While the ongoing adjustment is certainly still causing some pain, we believe this has helped reduce the cost of doing business in Hong Kong. This would in turn help attract foreign investors who have previously tried to avoid Hong Kong due to cost considerations."

Mr. Tong told the students that quite apart from the economic recovery measures, the SAR Government also has plans to upgrade Hong Kong's financial services.

These include merging Hong Kong's stocks and futures markets, introduction of Venture Board to provide capital for smaller, emerging technology companies and the development of a debt market.

In addition, he said, the SAR Government had announced plans to spend more than C$47 billion on infrastructure projects, one of the largest is the building of a new railway system to serve the western part of the New Territories.

Plans for the development of the Cyberport is also being implemented and will help the territory become a major information technology centre of the region. The first phase would be completed by late 2001, or early 2002.

"To make use of our reputation as the transportation hub of the region, we have a few major initiatives to maintain and streamline our image as a tourist attraction," Mr. Tong said.

"We have plans to build a Disney theme park in Hong Kong, and talks with them are in an advanced stage. An announcement is expected next month.

"We are also looking into the possibility of building a new cruise ship terminal and a fisherman's wharf."

He added that Hong Kong is the ideal location for Canadian companies for reasons such as the availability of an efficient and educated workforce, a clean and efficient government, adoption of prudent fiscal principle, excellent physical and telecommunications infrastructure, excellent legal system upholding rule of law, freedom of press and free flow of information and our geographical location.

"No one is better placed than Hong Kong to pave the way for Canadian companies wishing to do business in China."

In conclusion he said there are excellent opportunities in Hong Kong and urged audience to take advantage of Hong Kong to develop their business in Asia.

For further information please contact Chief Information Officer, Frank Chuan.

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