STATE ORGANS | THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA | MULTI-PARTY COOPERATION AND THE POLITICAL CONSULTATIVE SYSTEM | JURISDICTION | HONG KONG | MACAO | TAIWAN | RELIGION | RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Hong Kong

??

Summary of Key Statistics

The Hong Kong region is composed of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. Covering an area of 1,092 square km, it has a population of 6.78 million, 95 percent of them being Chinese. Hong Kong is an international metropolis, and, as an important center of finance, trade, shipping, tourism and information in the Asia-Pacific region, is known as the "Pearl of the Orient".

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong smoothly returned to the motherland after 150 years of British colonial rule. Since then, it has entered a new historical period featuring "one country, two systems", and "Hong Kong governed by the Hong Kong people" with a high degree of autonomy.

At the return of Hong Kong, some people expressed their doubts: "Will Hong Kong be as prosperous as in the past? Are the mainlanders capable of administering Hong Kong??? More than three years later, Hong Kong has delivered its answer: The great concept of "one country, two systems" put forth by Deng Xiaoping has been a great success. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government headed by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa carries out the administration in accordance with the Basic Law. The successful handling of the Asian financial crisis has consolidated Hong Kong's status as an international financial, trade and shipping center and maintained its prosperity and stability. Hong Kong's financial system has become more open, its economic foundation more solid and the legal foundations more stable. People in Hong Kong now have more confidence in their future.

Shortly after the return, Hong Kong became embroiled in the Asian financial crisis. The SAR government dealt with the crisis calmly. As a consequence, Hong Kong's economy began to show signs of recovery in 1999 and displayed a strong impetus of overall recovery in 2000. According to the statistics provided by the SAR government, Hong Kong, after the baptism of the financial crisis, has the strong backing of the mainland. That, together with its own strenuous efforts, has helped it surmount difficulties and regain vitality. In the past year, its economy has created at least eight new records.

- The economic growth rate in the year exceeded 10.5 percent, which was much higher than the forecast of the HKSAR government, international organizations and all non-governmental economic analysis institutions. The figure represents the highest growth rate not only in Hong Kong, but also in Asia or even the whole world, in the past 13 years.

- Imports and exports experienced substantial growth. Statistics show that in the first 11 months of 2000, the total value of Hong Kong's imports and exports increased 17.8 percent over the same period of the previous year. The value of merchandise in transit increased 19.2 percent; the value of exported Hong Kong products, 8 percent; and the value of imports, 20.4 percent.

- The container-handling capacity increased 9.8 percent over the previous year. The new record of 17.8 million standard containers once again exceeded that of Singapore, enabling Hong Kong to be the world's top container port. From 1992 to 1997, Hong Kong was top, but it was overtaken by Singapore in 1998. In 1999, Hong Kong regained the top position, with the handling capacity difference of the two ports expanding from 200,000 standard containers to 760,000 by 2000.

- Tourism as an important pillar industry witnessed rapid growth. In 2000, visitors to Hong Kong reached 13.06 million, up 15 percent over the previous year, compared with the historical high of 12.97 million in 1996. The occupancy rate of hotels reached 83 percent, up 4 percentage points over the previous year.

- By the end of 2000, Hong Kong's foreign exchange reserves reached US$107.5 billion, surpassing Taiwan and ranking third in the world next only to Japan and the mainland of China. This serves as an indication of Hong Kong's enhanced strength in trade, finance and government finance.

- The volume of both passenger and cargo air transportation saw substantial increase. In 2000, the number of planes taking off and landing at the Hong Kong International Airport increased 8.7 percent over the previous year. The volume of passenger traffic stood at 33.4 million people and the volume of cargo transport, 2.24 million tons, up 9.8 percent and 13.3 percent respectively. The volume of passenger traffic in transit increased nearly 20 percent. Hong Kong's role as an important pivot in world air transportation has become more obvious.

- More overseas companies based their regional headquarters (representative offices) in Hong Kong. By the end of 2000, it housed more than 3,000 regional headquarters (representative offices) of overseas companies, up more than 20 percent over the previous year. This serves as strong evidence for the confidence of the international business community in Hong Kong's economic prospects and business environment.

- According to the latest statistics, the total tonnage of ships from all around the world that are registered in Hong Kong has surpassed 10 million to reach 10.71 million. The ships number 581, ranking seventh in the world. Hong Kong's position as a world-class shipping center has further been consolidated.

The rapid recovery of Hong Kong's economy is attributed to the accelerated growth of the mainland economy in the first place. In the year 2000, the substantial economic growth and the quickened pace of reform and opening up on the mainland became a major driving force for Hong Kong's economic growth. The deepening reform of State-owned enterprises on the mainland and the increasing number of enterprises raising funds on overseas stock markets have facilitated capital operations on the Hong Kong market. Second, as a financial and trade center in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong is inevitably subject to the influence of global economic development in terms of economic growth. The general economic recovery in Asian countries has also boosted Hong Kong's economy.

The rapid economic growth is also closely related to the reform measures of the SAR government. As an international financial center, Hong Kong has taken the initiative to carry out a series of reforms in line with the trend of the times. It has merged the securities and futures exchanges, launched the US dollar settlement system and swiftly applied information technology in the securities and banking systems. All these have effectively improved the regulation and operation of the financial market, thus strengthening the risk-resistance capability and international competitiveness of the entire economy. For this reason, the US. Heritage Foundation again rated Hong Kong as the  most free economic system in 2000, the seventh year in succession that Hong Kong has won the honor.

??

1 | 2