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Invest Hong Kong of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and Guangzhou Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, today (October 8) jointly organised an investment promotion seminar in Bengaluru, India, attracting around 100 senior executives from Indian businesses.
Entitled "Hong Kong and Guangzhou: Your Ideal Partnership in China", the seminar was designed to highlight the growing opportunities for Indian companies in Hong Kong and Guangzhou with a focus on sectors including IT, IT-enabled services and life sciences.
The moderator of the seminar was Past President, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Mr S. Chandrasekhar. The seminar began with a warm welcome from the Commercial Consul of the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Mumbai, Mr Chen Hong and Director of International Institute of IT, Bangalore, Professor S. Sadagopan.
In his keynote speech, Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, Mr Simon Galpin, highlighted the bright outlook and opportunities brought about by the closer integration of Hong Kong with the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. He said, "Following the Mainland Chinese government's plan to establish the Pearl River Delta region as one of the most competitive regions in the world by 2020, Hong Kong and Guangzhou have taken closer co-operation initiatives in a number of economic areas and launched major cross-boundary infrastructure projects to maximise our combined synergy and complementary advantages. Indian businesses seeking to diversify production and procurement activities as well as increase marketing and management efficiency, will benefit from the greater collaboration between the two cities."
Hong Kong and India have established a long history of economic and trading activity. In 2008 total trade between Hong Kong and India amounted to some US$14.15 billion, of which India exports to Hong Kong reached US$7.45 billion and Hong Kong exports to India reached US$6.7 billion.
"In view of the strong growth of India's economy, there is a growing number of Indian companies setting up in Hong Kong. At present, there are about 1,500 Indian enterprises in the city. We shall continue our investment promotion efforts in India to encourage businesses to use Hong Kong as a springboard for entry into the Mainland market," Mr Galpin concluded.
Deputy Director General of Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangzhou Municipality, Ms Chen Yong Fang, elaborated on why Guangzhou is an ideal platform for Indian companies to capture business opportunities in Mainland China. She said, "Guangzhou has been one of the country's key manufacturing bases, with automobile manufacturing, petrochemical and IT as the three pillar industries in Guangzhou. Meanwhile, software and biology industries are emerging as a new force leading the industrial development. By the end of 2008, there are nearly 2,000 software enterprises stationed in Guangzhou achieving an annual output value of US$8.2 billion."
Ms Chen added, "Currently 19,216 foreign enterprises have been established in Guangzhou with contractual investment utilisation of foreign capitals of US$72.04 billion. A total of 170 corporations out of Global Fortune 500 have made investment in Guangzhou. More and more multinational corporations have chosen Guangzhou as their regional base for data processing and production in their global development strategy."
During the seminar, Chief Information Officer of the HKSAR Government, Mr Jeremy Godfrey, introduced the opportunities of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Industry in Hong Kong and the PRD region. Top management and professional specialists also presented case studies on successful business strategies and provided free advice on a wide range of business issues in Mainland China including taxation and accounting. Speakers included Head of HCL Hong Kong SAR Limited, Mr Sandeep Majumdar; Chairman of A. R. International Limited, Mr M. Arunachalam; Senior Director of Deloitte India, Mr Vishweshwar Mudigonda; and Mumbai Consultant of Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Mr Rajesh Bhagat.
Ends/Thursday, October 8, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:38
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