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"Our appetite for European goods and services is large. So far this year our imports from France - ranging from luxury goods, foods and wines to aircraft - have surged 85 per cent.
"But businesses do not flock to Hong Kong for the domestic market alone. They come to do business with the whole of the East Asian region, particularly China. According to a recent estimate, there are now some 160,000 enterprises in China funded from Hong Kong and jointly managed; and on a cumulative basis our realised direct investment in China is now estimated at US$66 billion, accounting for 60 per cent of China's total," Mrs Chan said.
She emphasised that not only did Hong Kong invest in China, but it helped to strike deals, raise funds and direct interested investors to the right projects.
Seventeen Chinese state-owned enterprises had enjoyed successful listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and there was considerable scope for Hong Kong to develop further as a funding centre for both the Chinese equity and debt markets.
The Chief Secretary pointed out that China was a fast developing market, but an unfamiliar one in which the business environment would be much more challenging and risky than that in Europe, North America or Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong's commercial expertise and knowledge of China could help minimise the risks for overseas investors wanting to enter that market.
Mrs Chan said Hong Kong's geographical position played a part in its success as a business centre. But, "the key is that Hong Kong provides the legal infrastructure on which business depends".
"We have the rule of law which has protected our liberties and allowed free rein to the natural talents and entrepreneurial skills of our overwhelmingly Chinese population, free from the threat of arbitrary intervention in our daily lives," she said.
The Chief Secretary added that the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law recognised that Hong Kong's success as a community and as a business centre depended on the continuation of its system of government and its way of life beyond 1997. And that was why it was agreed in the Joint Declaration that Hong Kong would not become a part of China just like any other province, but a Special Administrative Region with a high degree of autonomy.