ENG-2000 — Page 142

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Hong Kong's major export markets in 2000 were the USA (30 per cent), the Mainland (29.9 per cent), the UK (5.9 per cent), Germany (5.1 per cent) and Taiwan (3.4 per cent).

Hong Kong's manufacturing sector is dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Of the 21 509 manufacturing establishments in 2000, 21 216 (98.6 per cent) employed fewer than 100 persons, accounting for 63.2 per cent of Hong Kong's total manufacturing employment. Many SMEs are linked with larger factories through an efficient and flexible sub-contracting network. This arrangement has enabled the manufacturing sector to respond swiftly to market changes.

The Services Sector

The services sector grew significantly in the past two decades. Its share in Hong Kong's GDP rose from 67 per cent in 1984 to 84.7 per cent in 1999. In 2000, the sector employed 2 022 445 persons (86.4 per cent of the total private sector employees). Today, Hong Kong has become one of the most service-oriented economies in the world. Much of this growth was fuelled by the demand for producer services by Hong Kong's globalised production network.

Like manufacturing, the services sector is also dominated by SMEs. In 2000, 98.3 per cent of Hong Kong's 283 470 service establishments are SMEs (employing fewer than 50 persons). They together employed 1.25 million persons (61.9 per cent of the total service employment in the private sector).

External Investment

The Government is committed to enhancing the attractiveness of Hong Kong as a premier investment destination. Invest Hong Kong is a new government department established on July 1, 2000 to spearhead Hong Kong's efforts to attract external direct investment. Its Head Office in Hong Kong works closely with the 10 overseas Economic and Trade Offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia to offer solution-oriented investment promotion, facilitation and after-care services to prospective and existing external investors.

A Census and Statistics Department survey shows that Hong Kong had 9 255 enterprise groups' with external direct investment in Hong Kong at the end of 1999, comprising 576 in the manufacturing sector and 8 679 in the non-manufacturing sector. The market value of all the external direct investments amounted to $3,149.8 billion. Chart 3 shows the economic activity of these enterprise groups whilst Chart 4 shows source countries/territories of the investments. Regarding employment, more than two-thirds of them were enterprise groups employing fewer than 20 persons (Chart 5).

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Note 1: An enterprise group may consist of a parent company, its subsidiaries, associates and branches.