8.
orientated to western attitudes and tastes, and well over
2 million visitors who spend 60% of their budget on shopping, the
geographically small territory of Hong Kong represents a
substantial market for British manufacturers and suppliers of both
capital and consumer goods. And as a major regional financial
and shipping centre, it will continue to be a lucrative market
for Britain's service industries. Hong Kong in 1980 was 19th
UK's in the world league of British export markets it is the/second
market in Asia only to Japan.
exports to Japan in 1980 and over three times as much as our
exports to China.
Even then it took 94% of our
-
To sum up the market is important to British exporters:
(a) because of the size of Hong Kong's domestic market total
imports in 1980 reached over HK$111,000 million (approximately
£10,000 million) of which the UK secured less than 5 per cent
(b) because Hong Kong is a British administered regional
marketing centre with a well established British business
community and a tradition of trade with the UK; it is an
industrial base for manufacture/part manufacture/assembly from which to tackle other markets in this rapidly developing
region such as south-east Asia, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea,
Japan as well as China
(c) because from Hong Kong, British firms can study changing China
trading methods and develop co-operation with local firms to
exploit the opportunities which exist in China, especially
its southern provinces.
China Trade Unit
The China Trade Unit was set up as a result of the
July 1979 inspection of the Peking post, when the Inspectors
also visited Hong Kong.
Details of the Unit's Diplomatic
Service/.....