TNAG-1107-FCO40-1358-Inspection-of-the-British-Trade-Commission--Hong-Kong--in-Fe-1981 — Page 48

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 bot

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. Even then it took 94% of our

exports to Japan in 1980 and over three times as much as our

exports to China.

K

Spodn

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/.....