InvestHK helped a record 391 mainland or overseas businesses establish in Hong Kong last year – 4.3 per cent more than in 2015.
InvestHK’s acting director-general of investment promotion, Dr Jimmy Chiang, said that despite ongoing challenges in the global economy, Hong Kong continues to attract overseas and Mainland investors because of its enduring advantages and emerging business opportunities.
“In the year ahead, we will continue to identify investors from key sectors and markets. Our targets include companies ranging from entrepreneur-led ventures to multinationals that plan to set up or expand in our city,” he added.
The 391 companies came from 40 economies. Mainland China continued to lead with a total of 82 companies, followed by the US (59), the UK (40), France (23) and Japan (20).
In terms of sectors, InvestHK assisted 58 companies in the transport & industrial category, followed by tourism & hospitality (56) and innovation & technology (53).
The 391 companies together created 3968 new jobs in their first year of establishment or expansion, which represented a nearly 9 per cent increase compared with the 3641 new jobs created by the companies assisted by InvestHK in 2015.
Among the 391 companies, 35 of them are start-ups, which are mainly from the US (8), the UK (7) and France (5). These start-ups were innovation-driven and technology-based with global scalability. InvestHK will continue to promote Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem with its flagship StartmeupHK Festival.
Chiang said InvestHK will continue to reach out to potential clients in priority markets including Mainland China and those in Association of Southeast Asian Nations economies and provide assistance for them to establish their presence in Hong Kong.
“We are looking to 2017 with cautious optimism. Despite the global economic uncertainty, we have a strong pipeline of companies and are optimistic that we will be able to meet our annual target of assisting 400 companies to set up or expand in Hong Kong in 2017,” he said.