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Following is a question by the Hon James To and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (July 3):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council of the respective amounts of Hong Kong's direct investment and the number of investment items outside Hong Kong in each quarter of the past five years, broken down by the economy entity where the investment was made and details of the trade categories involved?

Reply:

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) started to compile statistics on outward direct investment (ODI), including the ODI position at the end of each year and the ODI flow during the year, as from the reference year of 1998. Quarterly statistics on ODI flows are also compiled, as from 1999.

Breakdown of annual statistics on ODI analysed by major recipient country/territory are currently available. However, breakdown by economic activity of the enterprises receiving Hong Kong's ODI are only available in respect of the recipient enterprises in the mainland of China. At present C&SD does not compile statistics on the number of investment projects.

Statistics on the position and flow of ODI analysed by major recipient country/territory are given in Table 1. Statistics on the position and flow of ODI analysed by economic activity of the enterprises in the Mainland of China receiving Hong Kong's investment are given in Table 2.

End/Wednesday, July 3, 2002

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