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In terms of the overall total of the stock of inward direct investments in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors taken together, the United Kingdom ($145.4 billion or 27%), China ($107.5 billion or 20%), Japan ($87.6 billion or 16%) and the United States of America ($71.7 billion or 13%) remained to be the four largest investor countries, accounting for some 77% of the overall total at the end of 1995.

To facilitate economic analyses for different purposes, an alternative measure in terms of net assets attributable to inward direct investments is also compiled. The main difference between "stock of inward direct investments" and "net assets attributable to inward direct investments" is that the latter includes third-party loans (notably bank loans) which are not provided by the external direct investor. Both sets of statistics have their own technical basis and analytical purposes.

The total value of net assets attributable to inward direct investments in the non-manufacturing sectors of Hong Kong amounted to $729.5 billion at the end of 1995, an increase of 11% over the amount at the end of 1994.

In terms of the total value of net assets attributable to inward direct investments in the non-manufacturing sectors, the largest contributors were Japan (24% of the total or $172.7 billion), the United Kingdom (22% or $163.4 billion), China (20% or $145.7 billion), and the United States of America (11% or $80.2 billion). When compared with the analysis based on the stock of inward direct investments in the non- manufacturing sectors, the share of Japan was slightly higher than those of the United Kingdom and China, reflecting the higher gearing ratio of enterprises of Japanese interest.

Putting together findings of the two complementary surveys on the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, the overall total value of net assets attributable to inward direct investments in Hong Kong amounted to $777.8 billion at the end of 1995, an increase of 11% over the amount at the end of 1994.

As regards the investment environment of Hong Kong, firms in the non- manufacturing sectors ranked the following factors as the most important considerations for making investments in Hong Kong: banking and financial facilities, infrastructure, and government economic policy. In sum, over four-fifths of the firms considered the overall investment environment of Hong Kong favourable.