“ONLY BETTER DAYS TO COME” HONG KONG AS AMERICA’S BRIDGE TO ASIAN GROWTH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New YORK ,New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) December 6, 2011 -- NEW YORK (December 6, 2011) – American exports to mainland China and Hong Kong will likely increase significantly in 2012, a senior Hong Kong trade official told an audience of 300 business and financial services professionals in New York on December 2nd.

“We see growing demand for U.S. products and services,” said Fred Lam, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). “For example, in the first ten months of 2011, consumer goods imports in mainland China grew 57% over last year. Additionally, the shifting of mainland China’s manufacturing industry from low-end processing to high value chain is expected to require further imports of technologies in environment, construction, and other related services from U.S. companies.”
Mr. Lam said the expected rise would be helped by the Pacific Bridge Initiative (PBI), which is a trade program between the U.S. and Hong Kong. Since the U.S. Department of Commerce and HKTDC implemented the initiative last November, the PBI has helped triple the number of new-to-market U.S. firms. American firms are also increasingly positioning their headquarters in Hong Kong; currently there are 1,330 U.S. companies headquartered in Hong Kong, up 5% from last year.

American companies’ goods and services are in high demand in Asia because of their innovation and quality. Hong Kong offers tremendous opportunities to U.S. companies given the facts that the Asian region includes some of the world’s fastest growing emerging markets and that half the world's population lives within five hours from the free port of Hong Kong.
For its part, the HKTDC helps U.S. firms tap the robust Asian market. Each year it hosts dozens of trade fairs, some of which are the largest in the world. For example, the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn edition) is the largest fair of its kind in the world, and has more exhibitors than the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. As Asia’s trade fair hub, Hong Kong is an ideal platform for meeting quality mainland traders. Last year, HKTDC fairs hosted nearly 137,000 buyers from mainland China.

Mr. Lam made his remarks at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where Hong Kong officials detailed new trade initiatives and success stories of the Asian financial capital as a bridge to American business growth in the region. Lawrence Fok, Chief Marketing Officer of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, delivered the keynote address.
Mr. Fok highlighted a major technology upgrade at the Hong Kong Exchange, which takes effect on December 5th. The improvement is related to its IT infrastructure in terms of order routing and the construction of a new Data Centre with hosting services. “The processing capacity of its order routing system on Monday will be increased about 10-fold to 30,000 orders per second, and reduce latency to 2 milliseconds, about 70 times faster than present,” said Mr. Fok.

The improvements will make the Hong Kong Exchange even more attractive for U.S. companies considering listing there. On December 1st, American luxury label Coach became the first U.S. company to be listed on the Hong Kong Exchange through a secondary listing.
Recognized as a leading global financial bourse, the Hong Kong Exchange has agreed to enter into detailed discussions with the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges with a view to establishing a joint venture in Hong Kong. The venture’s possible areas of business include, but are not limited to, the development of index and other equity derivative products and the compilation of new indexes. Additional discussions on a global basis include an alliance with exchanges from the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Hong Kong and South Africa).

With these new developments Mr. Fok said emphatically, “our best days are ahead of us.”

Fred Lam     Hong Kong Stock Exchange     Hong Kong Trade     Lawrence Fok     Pacific Bridge Initiative     Trade Development Council