The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC, 香港貿易發展局) will promote cooperation among small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China to tap into the vast Chinese market, the head of the council’s Taipei office said on Friday.
Perry Fung (馮渤) made the pledge at a cocktail reception marking the opening of the HKTDC Taiwan office, which will formally become operational early next year.
Fung said that China already had a middle-class population of 230 million, adding that the Chinese consumer market was worth developing and that there was ample room for SMEs in the three Chinese-speaking societies to cooperate in exploring such an immense opportunity.
Senior HKTDC executives also traveled to Taipei to attend the opening reception, which saw the attendance of many Taiwanese trade promoters and business managers, including Wang Chih-kang (王志剛), chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會).
GROWING CLOSER
HKTDC Chairman Jack So (蘇澤光) said that capital, commodity and manpower exchanges among Taiwan, China and Hong Kong will grow ever closer.
Against this backdrop, So said the HKTDC decided to open a branch in Taipei to facilitate further cooperation.
The HKTDC, a Hong Kong government-funded but unofficial organization, began considering opening a branch in Taiwan five years ago, but did not file an application until after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — seen as more friendly toward China than the previous administration — regained power this year.
After the Ministry of Economic Affairs approved the HKTDC application in October, the Hong Kong group sent Fung — formerly the HKTDC Beijing office’s top executive in charge of the northern China market — to Taipei to prepare for the opening of the new office.
STATISTICS
Hong Kong is Taiwan’s fourth-largest trading partner after China, Japan and the US.
Customs statistics show that Taiwan-Hong Kong trade totaled US$39.8 billion last year, accounting for 8.54 percent of overall foreign trade. Taiwan’s exports accounted for US$37.98 billion, or 15.4 percent of the country’s total exports, making Hong Kong its second-largest export outlet.
At the same time, Hong Kong invested more than US$200 million in Taiwan, up 76 percent from 2006, while Taiwan’s investment in Hong Kong for that year totaled about US$190 million.
In the first six months of this year, Hong Kong investment had already topped US$236 million, far exceeding its investment for all of last year, government tallies showed.
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