CONFIDENTIAL #5
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21.
In
Another source of finance is from tourism.
Leisure trips to holiday resorts in the SSEZ have become
increasingly popular among Hong Kong residents. In 1984, there were 8.04 million departures for China made by Hong Kong residents; this was 2.5 times the number in 1979. the first nine months of 1985, the number of departures for China, at 8.22 million, was 43% higher than in the
same priod last year. It is believed that the SSEZ is now the principal destination for a sizeable proportion of
these travellers but no statistical breakdown in terms of
destinations in China is available. It is likely that expenditure by Hong Kong residents in the SSEZ constitutes
an important source of foreign exchange earnings and goes some way towards making good its visible trade deficit, but there is obviously a limit to such earnings.
22.
Another recent development is that some Hong Kong residents make frequent trips to the SSEZ to buy foodstuffs and other daily necessities as prices for
comparable products are lower in the SSEZ than in Hong Kong. This can be regarded as a rather peculiar type of "tourist" expenditure. However it is debatable whether such expenditure represents a genuine "gain" in terms of foreign exchange in the national context if retail businesses in the SSEZ flourish at the expense of Hong Kong retailers selling the same Chinese products. gain for China as a whole is probably only the extra profits, if any, of both the wholesalers and the retailers
inside China.
The net
23.
In 1984, the volume of Hong Kong's imports of fruit, vegetables, and meat and meat preparations from China declined by 10%, 26% and 10% respectively when
SONEIDENTIAL #4
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