*********************************************************
Companies in Saga, Japan, will find Hong Kong an ideal place for trade, investment and tourism and an excellent starting point for promotion of their products to the Chinese Mainland market.
Hong Kong's increasing economic integration with the Mainland, through the implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and the Framework Agreement on Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation, and the strong characteristics and fundamentals of the Hong Kong economy, have made the city an even more important gateway to China than before.
This was said by the Principal Economic and Trade Representative (Tokyo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Mrs Jennie Chok, today (September 9) at a Hong Kong business seminar in Saga Prefecture.
Noting that the Saga Prefectural Government had selected Hong Kong as a key market for promotion of food and agricultural products, Mrs Chok said such promotion efforts were very timely.
"Japanese food products are very popular in Hong Kong. The consumption of such products has been huge in recent years, as reflected by the fact that Hong Kong has been Japan's largest overseas market for food and agricultural products since 2005, importing 22% of the total of such products in 2009," she said.
Mrs Chok added that Saga companies can also use Hong Kong to reach out to Mainland consumers, with a daily average of over 49,000 Mainlanders visiting the city last year.
"Through reaching out to these Mainland consumers in Hong Kong, you are potentially building up your brand image in the large, fast-growing Mainland market too," she said.
Apart from trade and investment, Mrs Chok also looked forward to co-operation between Hong Kong and Saga Prefecture in the development of two-way tourism and friendly exchanges in many different areas.
Organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo, the seminar was attended by some 100 government officials and business leaders in the prefecture, including Vice Governor of the Saga Prefectural Government, Mr Hiroki Sakai, and Vice Chairman of the Federation of Saga Prefecture Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Yoshihisa Ohta.
Ends/Thursday, September 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:09
NNNN
