in Hong Kong which are related to every day life of people, such as the construction of Mass Transit Railway, reclamation projects, building of container terminals, construction of water supply pipelines, connection of powerline between Kowloon and the Hong Kong Island, construction of power stations. In the field of retail industries, more than 10 Japanese department stores are daily providing daily necessities and other products to the people with the share of sales among all department stores in Hong Kong being said to be around 50%. In the case of one department store,it opened the store in Shatin in 1984, the first one in the area, and moved its headquarters from Japan to Hong Kong in 1989. Both 1984 and 1989 were difficult years for Hong Kong and foreign investors were somewhat hesitant in their moves. Therefore the moves of this department store seemed to encourage the psychology of Hong Kong.
As for the new airport project, Japanese companies are interested in actively participating the various parts of projects. On the occasion of the joint meeting of Japan-Hong Kong, Hong Kong-Japan businessmen committees, which was held in November last year, the Japanese side showed strong interest and full support to the project. If Japanese companies are given chances, I am sure that they will do their best. In fact, some of them have already started their works, as in the case of the construction of the Tsing Ma suspension bridge which is jointly operated with British companies.
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