George Yuen (left) and Christopher Hammerbeck report foreign firms’ growing optimism towards Hong Kong’s long-term economic future

Research firm ACNielsen, which conducted the survey on behalf of the Better Hong Kong Foundation (BHKF) and International Hong Kong - a group comprising international chambers of commerce and business associations - reported that 50 per cent of companies felt positive this year, compared with 38 per cent last year.

BFHK's chief executive George Yuen said that given the prolonged global economic downturn and the slow recovery of the US economy, it is understandable that there would be concern on short-term confidence by international companies in doing business this year.

He said: "The survey findings show that optimism about the business environment in Hong Kong for the coming 12 months has increased. With the government's continuous effort to improve the business environment, the Hong Kong economic outlook is promising."

A total of 1,241 companies were polled from September to November, including 1,004 members of the chambers of commerce representing the US, Britain, Sweden and Japan. About 84 per cent of them reasserted their confidence in Hong Kong's business prospects in the next three years, while 96 per cent expected their companies to have "good" to "satisfactory" performance in the same period.

Sixty per cent of member companies have their regional headquarters in Hong Kong as compared to 2000 (55 per cent) and 2001 (48 per cent) surveys. Among them, 85 per cent intended to keep Hong Kong as their regional business centre for the next three years.

About 96 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the taxation system and more than half consider the immigration policy and the government's involvement in making business-friendly industrial policies to be satisfactory.

Addressing the high costs of doing business in Hong Kong Christopher Hammerbeck, executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce, said prices were falling in the SAR. "Hong Kong is becoming more cost competitive. The mainland's costs are going up and Hong Kong's costs are coming down." 

Related links:
Better Hong Kong Foundation www.betterhongkong.org
ACNielsen www.acnielsen.com
British Chamber of Commerce www.britcham.com