Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is located in Southeast Asia bordering China and the South China Sea. It is about six times the size of Washington DC and covers an area of 1,092 sq. kilometers. Hong Kong’s total population is 7.18 million and is growing at a rate of 0.39% with 100% living in urban areas. Hong Kong’s government is a Special Administrative Region of China and operates under the one country, two systems policy. Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy except for the areas of Foreign and Defense affairs. The official language used is Chinese with English being a popular second language. The local currency used is the Hong Kong Dollar.

Hong Kong has a free market economy highly dependent on international trade and finance and is increasingly integrating with mainland China. Due to the beneficial economic policies, Hong Kong is a global center for foreign investment and one of the easiest places in the world to do business. Its main trade partner is China accounting for 49% of exports and 47% of imports. Other major trade partners include the US, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. Its primary imports are raw materials and semi-manufactures, consumer goods, capital goods, foodstuffs, and fuels. Exports consist of electrical machinery and appliances, textiles, apparel, footwear, watches, clocks, toys, plastics, precious stones, and printed material. Hong Kong’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $363.7 billion and is growing at a real rate of 1.8% with an inflation rate of 4.1%. Hong Kong ranked 2nd out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.

Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in Hong Kong

Franchise Heats Up Hong Kong Expo

Doing Business in Hong Kong(2012)

Franchising Rides Waves of Economic Expansion in Asia and Pacific Rim(2007)

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.