Domestic enterprises will be able to make better use of Hong Kong's advantages as one of the world's financial and trade pivots thanks to the Hong Kong Chinese Commodities Plaza which will be put into operation in March.

Covering a floor space of 170,000 square meters, the facility has more than 1,500 standard booths. And it will be jointly managed by Hong Kong Asia Pacific Exhibition and Trade (Group) Co Ltd and Guangdong International Trade Exhibition Co Ltd.

Backed by governmental organizations from both the mainland and Hong Kong, the facility aims to set up a platform for domestic enterprises to show off their commodities as well as for regional governments to promote their investment climate and seek capital input all year around, said Wu Fan, general manager of Hong Kong Asia Pacific Exhibition and Trade (Group) Co Ltd.

The plaza will give priority to household goods, gifts and decorative products, products for office use, sports goods, trunks, bags, shoes and headgear, hardware, electronic products and household appliances, textiles and garments, natives and animal by-products, medical products, toys, building materials and furniture, all of which have gained growing popularity in the global market.

More than 100 domestic enterprises signed agreements on Tuesday to book booths at the commodities plaza on Friday and another 400-odd domestic enterprises will join when it becomes operational next year, he said.

According to Zhong Min, chief representative of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade's Hong Kong office, the Hong Kong Chinese Commodities Plaza will be an important project for the implementation of Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and the mainland.

"With the operation of the gigantic project, domestic enterprises will get easier access to the benefits of Hong Kong's position as one of the international financial and trade centres and they will be able to make good use of Hong Kong as a springboard to the world," she said.

Hong Kong's advantages conducive to domestic enterprises and investment project promotions include the numerous capital channels - with 263 banks including 78 of the world's top 100 banks and the stock market; the representative offices of over 60 per cent of the world's top 500 consortia, the sub-ordinates of more than 3,000 multinational enterprises and the regional headquarters of 940 multinational companies; as well as a large number of international purchasing groups, she said.

(China Daily December 4, 2004)