Hong Kong, Asia’s most popular city for international business is a city that works. Its enduring appeal is built on political stability, pro-business governance, rule of law and an independent legal system, free market principles, free flow of information, and English as the language of business.
One country, two systems
In 1997, Hong Kong returned to the sovereignty of China, but it has retained all the fundamental strengths and advantages that have underpinned its success as an international business city:
- Level playing field for all – no foreign ownership restrictions;
- Clean government and rule of law upheld by an independent judiciary;
- Free movement of capital, talent, goods and information;
- Fully convertible Hong Kong dollar separate from Renminbi;
- Hong Kong practices a high degree of autonomy from the Mainland with executive and legislative powers;
- Hong Kong continues to participate in international forums in its own right, including the World Trade Organisation, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and Asia Development Bank;
- English and Chinese are the official languages of Hong Kong
In the work place, English is the usual language of business with contracts written, reviewed and executed in English.
Hong Kong consistently scores highly in global business environment rankings
World’s most free economy
For over the past 17 consecutive years Hong Kong has been ranked the “World’s Freest Economy” by the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal.
Second lowest costs of doing business and business risk in the world
The Milken Institute’s Opacity Index measures high-frequency, low-impact risks which indicate poorly functioning governments and increased cost of doing business and business risk. The five factors measured are: corruption, legal system, efficiency, economic and enforcement policies, accounting standards and regulatory effectiveness. Hong Kong continues to have the best opacity in Asia Pacific and is number two in the world, just behind Finland.
The most competitive location in the world
Both Hong Kong and US ranked the most competitive locations in the world with an index score of 100 according to the International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, the leading annual report on the competitiveness of nations. The survey benchmarked the 59 most important economies in the world according to 331 different competitiveness criteria, including economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
In 2010, Hong Kong continues to be ranked 1st in business efficiency and government efficiency and ranked 4th in economic performance.
