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Commerce and Industry
Imports
In 2018, electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances and electrical parts thereof constituted the largest share of total imports at $1,758 billion, followed by telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment ($742.8 billion) and office machines and automatic data processing machines ($422.5 billion). The Mainland, Taiwan and Singapore were Hong Kong's major suppliers, accounting for 46.3 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively of the total value of imports.
Manufacturing
Hong Kong is a command and control centre for manufacturing with a globalised production network. Domestic manufacturing contributed 1.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017 and provided employment for 91,900 people in 2018, making up 2.4 per cent of overall employment.
Food and beverage producers are the largest employers in the manufacturing sector, followed by employers in the printing and reproduction of recorded media industries. Chart 1 shows the breakdown of manufacturing employment.
Chart 1
Others
Number of People Employed by Manufacturing Sector as at December 2018
32.1% (28,923)
Food products
and beverages
34.3% (30,896)
Rubber and plastics products
(except furniture, toys, sports goods and stationery)
2.1% (1,927)
Textiles
2.3% (2,106)
Fabricated metal products
(except machinery and equipment) 2.5% (2,277)
Electronics 2.6% (2,356)
Wearing apparel 4% (3,597)
Printing and reproduction
of recorded media
14.1% (12,661)
Pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products 5.9% (5,354)
Services
Hong Kong is one of the world's most service-oriented economies. The services sector's share of GDP in 2017 was 92.4 per cent and it provided employment for 3,419,400 people, making up 88.3 per cent of total employment in 2018.
In 2018, Hong Kong's total services trade amounted to $1,528.2 billion, the world's 17th largest in value. The territory exported $892.3 billion worth of services, contributing to 31.4 per cent of GDP, compiled based on the change of ownership principle. It ranked fifth in the region after the Mainland, Japan, India and Singapore in total value of services exported, and 15th in the world.
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