Hong Kong remains a competitive place for doing business even though its position in a world competitiveness ranking had fallen, said a spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government Tuesday (April 30).
In the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2002 recently published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, Hong Kong's overall competitiveness ranking as assessed by the IMD had fallen from the sixth to the ninth place.
"Clearly the slow-down is largely due to the influence of external factors, in particular the synchronized downturn in the global economy as prompted by that in the U.S. economy," the spokesman said.
He noted that "on the other hand, the IMD has also acknowledged that Hong Kong has a lot of competitive strengths, including low corporate tax rate, flexible labor regulations and entrepreneurship."
"All in all, Hong Kong continues to be a competitive place for doing business," he said.
"The government will study the report thoroughly for any further useful comments on Hong Kong, and will continue to do all necessary things to preserve and further enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness," the spokesman added.
(People's Daily May 1, 2002)
