The millions of visitors who flock to Hong Kong – voted Favourite Overseas City in 2006 – all want to capture this stunning night view from the famous Peak Tower
	Hong Kong International Airport, voted the world’s best, is renowned for its excellent facilities, friendliness and efficiency

Hong Kong is springing into 2007 on a high note, having notched up another year of robust economic growth and business optimism.

2006 was a "good news" year for the city, capped off by its ranking as the world's freest economy - for the 12th consecutive year. The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal survey placed Hong Kong first among more than 160 economies, with the city scoring the best possible mark for trade policy, monetary policy, foreign investment, banking and finance, property rights and regulation.

Hong Kong also ranked first in the Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report jointly released last year by the Fraser Institute of Canada and the Cato Institute of the US. Apart from overall top ranking in the comparison of economic freedom among 127 economies, Hong Kong also ranked first in freedom to trade internationally and regulation of credit, labour and business, and second in size of government.

FDI up

It was also a year in which Hong Kong remained a preferred destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), ranking 7th in the world. The FDI inflow to Hong Kong has been consistently strong in recent years, and according to the World Investment Report 2005 released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Hong Kong last year remained the second largest FDI recipient in Asia, after the Chinese mainland. Preliminary figures by the Census and Statistics Department show FDI inflow to Hong Kong in 2005 reached US$35.9 billion, up 5.5 per cent from 2004.

The same report (UNCTAD) classified Hong Kong as "front-runner" economy, which means that the city out-performed its investment potential by attracting high FDI flows relative to its economic size. Hong Kong shared this designation in Asia with the Chinese mainland, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Vietnam.

Hong Kong was selected from more than 60 entries as the overall winner of Asian City of the Future 2005/6 in a competition organised by the Financial Times' fDi magazine. Hong Kong was placed first in four out of seven categories - best transport, best IT and telecommunications, best quality of life and best FDI potential - and was runner-up in the best human resources category.

The number of overseas firms with a presence in Hong Kong reached a record high last year. The city is now the chosen base for nearly 3,800 regional headquarters (up 6.3 per cent year on year) and regional offices (up 4.8 per cent) representing companies from around the world, demonstrating that Hong Kong remains the preferred base in Asia for foreign companies to oversee their regional operations.

Tourism kudos

It was another bumper year for tourism, with UK's Guardian Unlimited naming Hong Kong as the Favourite Overseas City in its 2006 Travel Awards. Visitor arrivals at end of October reached 20.76 million, a rise of 8.7 per cent. A number of new attractions opened during the year: Hong Kong Wetland Park, the cable car Ngong Ping 360, Hong Kong Maritime Museum and the revamped Peak Tower. New hotels such as the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Central, and the boutique Luxe Manor in Kowloon, offered visitors more places to stay than ever.

Hong Kong continued to be a hub for trade, with air cargo throughput reaching 1.8million tonnes - a rise of 3.5 per cent - for the first six months of the year. The city's container port remained one of the world's busiest, shipping 15.6mn TEUs by August - a year-on-year rise of 6.3 per cent. Based on a steady rise since March, the growth in Hong Kong's sea freight throughput was expected to exceed 5 per cent by year's end.