CJ1AFG
2
BACKGROUND
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL POSITION
1.
Much of Hong Kong
unproductive mountainland.
i s
About 16%, including areas reclaimed from the sea,
used for residential and industrial development. Only
9.4% of the I and is farmed, producing vegetables,
fruit, flowers, freshwater fish, pigs and poultry.
The re i s a considerable fishing fleet of 5,000 boats,
meeting over 90% of local
local demand for fish. Less than
3% of the population engage in farming or fishing.
2.
Hong Kong's principal natural asset is its
sheltered harbour, the only developed deep water port
on the China coast.
From the establishment of Hong
Kong as a centre for Britain's Far East trade
in 1841 up
up to about 1950, trade and commerce was the
main economic activity.
Then, when the Korean War
brought a slump in trade with China,
necessary
(which
to develop other
rema i n
the
i t became
sources of income,
particularly as the population had expanded rapidly
with the influx of immigrants from China at the time of
the Communist take-over. Hong Kong therefore turned to
manufacturing, starting with textiles and clothing
dominant industries), but
diversifying later
later into many other products, including plastics, electrical and electronic goods, scientific instruments, watches and photographic and optical
equipment.
The entrepôt trade with China has
re-emerged as significant proportion of Hong Kong's
trade in the last few years,
a
and service industries
a consequence of rapidly
have expanded rapidly as growing domestic incomes and Hong Kong's development as
an important international financial and tourist
centre.
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