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Speaking at the 2009 "Year of the Ox" dinner celebration in Jakarta, Indonesia, today (February 2), the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore (HKETO), Ms Subrina Chow, said Hong Kong is sharing with governments across the ASEAN region the earnest hope for a speedy recovery of the world economy.
Ms Chow said: "In Hong Kong, our focus has been to stabilise the financial system, ease the credit crunch for our enterprises and save jobs for our work force."
"We are confident that with their proven resilience, our resourceful business communities and versatile work force will rise above this storm and emerge stronger from this economic downturn as they have done before," she stressed.
Looking ahead, Ms Chow added that as China moves into a new phase of economic development, Hong Kong will continue to play a key role as the nation¡¦s international financial centre, its logistics and services hub as well as the regional base from which both international and Chinese corporations reach out to the rest of Asia and the world.
She appealed to the local business leaders attending the dinner celebration to use Hong Kong more fully as the platform to grow their business.
The dinner celebration in Jakarta is the first of the series of Chinese New Year receptions in the ASEAN region jointly organised by HKETO, Hong Kong Tourism Board and other related organisations to celebrate the beginning of Year of the Ox. It will be followed by receptions in Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila.
Set up in 1995, HKETO in Singapore seeks to enhance understanding and strengthen the bilateral relations between Hong Kong and the ASEAN countries, which include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ends/Monday, February 2, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:33
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