Hong Kong Market

Hong Kong, or Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is one of the two special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the other one being Macau. However, as per the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, it operates with a high degree of autonomy and has its own legal system, police force, monetary system and customs policy. A part of the Four Asian Tigers, the Hong Kong Market is often quoted as the most economically free in the world reaping the benefits of laissez-faire capitalism. This fact is stressed upon again by the Index of Economic Freedom which puts the Hong Kong economy at 89.3% as in 2007 with Fiscal Freedom being the highest at 95.3% followed by Labour Freedom at 93.6%, Freedom from Government at 91.6% and Business Freedom at 88.3%.Under the influence of occasional intervention from the government, the economy basically functions on the policy of a positive non-intervention. In fact, the characteristic of the Hong Kong Market of being the most free has been reinforced by the conditions of a low taxation rate, fully convertible and secure currency (HK Dollar), efficient network of transport and communication and a skilled workforce. In 2006, Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was ranked as the 40 th in the world, standing at US $ 253.1 billion. Its per-capita GDP was however placed at the 15 th rank at US $ 36,500 beating countries such as Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the PRC.

Some of the key Hong Kong Markets can be classified as follows :

•  Commodities Market: As the region is quite low on natural resources, majority of the commodities produced by Hong Kong is concentrated on electronics, machinery, fabricated-metal products, plastic products and jewellery. Industrial expertise for the economy also exists on textiles and garments. Foodstuffs and raw materials for industries constitute the major share of the imports and much of the region’s exports are actually re-exports that is commodities produced in mainland China and distributed through its territory. Hong Kong happens to be the 11 th largest trading entity in the world with the total value of exports and imports exceeding its GDP. Total exports or Hong Kong experienced a 9.45 growth in 2006 at US $ 315.5 billion. Total imports were at US $333.3 billion, a growth of 11.6% for the same period. The main trading partners of Hong Kong are mainland China, US, EU and Japan.

•  Money and Capital Market: The fifth-largest banking sector in the world, Hong Kong is a major trading and financial centre of the world. The banking sector of the economy remains as strong as ever before with the government committed to a US-HK linked exchange rate. The HK Dollar is pegged at a fixed rate to the US dollar since 1983 and hover around 7.75 to 7.85 for one US dollar. The financial industry was responsible for the longest growth period in Hong Kong’s history which happened in the period of 1970’s through the 1980’s. In case of the Stock Market, the Hong Kong Stock Market, abbreviated as HKEX or SEHK is the stock exchange of Hong Kong with the holding company being the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. It is ranked seventh in the world in terms of market capitalization (as of May 2007, total market capitalization stood at US $ 1.87 trillion). HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation) happens to be the largest banking corporation in Hong Kong followed closely by the Bank of China. Hong Kong also happens to be 10 th largest exporter of commercial services in the world.

•  Labour Market: Unemployment reached its peak in 1999 at 6.3% which however eased to 4.8% by mid-2000. it was 5.6% in 2006 and at 4.3% in April 2007. In the recent years, whereas job losses were reported in the manufacturing and construction sector, they were more than offset than the gains in the service sector as Hong Kong continues to the largest service-oriented economy in the world contributing over 90% of its GDP. However, with the growing trend of globalization, employment of unskilled labour is becoming less guaranteed.