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Five feature articles entitled "Hong Kong's International Investment Position for 2002", "The Financing and Business Services Industries in Hong Kong", "Socio-economic Characteristics of Hong Kong Residents Making Personal Travel to the Mainland of China", "Government Funding of Research and Development, Innovation and Technology Upgrading, 1995/96-2001/02" and "Printing and Publishing Industry in Hong Kong" are published in the July 2003 issue of the Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics (HKMDS), which is now on sale.
"Hong Kong's International Investment Position for 2002"
The Census and Statistics Department published in June this year statistics on International Investment Position (IIP) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the reference year of 2002.
IIP is a balance sheet showing an economy's stock of external financial assets and liabilities at a particular time point.
At end-2002, Hong Kong's external financial assets and liabilities amounted to $8,024.6 billion and $5,378.6 billion respectively, resulting in a net IIP of $2,646.1 billion.
This feature article describes salient features of Hong Kong's IIP for 2002.
For enquiries about this feature article, please call the Balance of Payments Branch(1), Census and Statistics Department (Tel.: 2116 5159).
"The Financing and Business Services Industries in Hong Kong"
Hong Kong is one of the most important international financial and business centres in the Asia-Pacific region. The financing and business services industries have been playing an important role in the blossom of Hong Kong's economy.
This feature article explicates the operating characteristics and the business performance of the financing (except banking) industry, the banking industry and the business services industry from 1999 to 2001.
For enquiries about this feature article, please call the Distribution and Services Statistics Section(2)A, Census and Statistics Department (Tel. : 2802 1269).
"Socio-economic Characteristics of Hong Kong Residents Making Personal Travel to the Mainland of China"
In 2002, Hong Kong residents made a total of 38.4 million personal trips to the Mainland. Among these, 45.4% (or 17.4 million person-trips) were destined for Shenzhen, 48.2% (or 18.5 million person-trips) for other places in the Guangdong Province and the remaining 6.4% (or 2.5 million person-trips) for other places in the Mainland outside the Guangdong Province.
28.8% of all personal trips to the Mainland were same-day trips, amounted to 11.1 million person-trips. Among these same-day trips, the majority (80.2%) were destined for Shenzhen.
Analysed by socio-economic characteristics of Hong Kong residents making personal travel to the Mainland, proportion of personal trips made by males (59.3%) was higher. Proportion of personal trips made by residents in the age group 40-49 (25.7%) was the highest.
Among the trips in respect of personal travel by Hong Kong residents to the Mainland, 20.3 million person-trips were made by employed persons. Of this, the highest proportion was made by residents worked in the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector (27.5%).
This feature article presents the socio-economic characteristics of Hong Kong residents making personal travel to the Mainland.
For enquiries about this feature article, please call the National Income Section (1)3, Census and Statistics Department (Tel.: 2582 4643).
"Government Funding of Research and Development, Innovation and Technology Upgrading, 1995/96-2001/02"
To foster an innovation and technology culture in the economy, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has played a pivotal role in promoting research and development and technology upgrading. This feature article analyses the provision of funding by the Government to the higher education and business sectors in Hong Kong for research and technology upgrading through various funding channels during 1995/96 to 2001/02.
Analysing the R&D expenditure in the higher education sector in 2001/02 by source of funding, the three major sources were University Grants Committee (76%), Research Grants Council (9%), and Hong Kong Private Funds (7%).
Since the launching of the Innovation and Technology Fund in November 1999, a cumulative amount of about HK$854 million has been approved up to end 2002 to finance 338 projects.
For enquiries about this feature article, please call the Science and Technology Statistics Section, Census and Statistics Department (Tel.: 2887 5138).
"Printing and Publishing Industry in Hong Kong"
Printing and publishing industry plays an important role in Hong Kong. In 2001, the value added of printing and publishing industry reached $12.3 billion and became the top major industry group in the whole manufacturing sector in terms of value added.
This feature article analyses the industry structures, operating characteristics and performance of the printing and publishing industry during 1992 to 2001.
For enquiries about this feature article, please call the Distribution and Services Statistics Section (1) B, Census and Statistics Department (Tel. : 2802 1350).
The July 2003 issue of the HKMDS is now on sale at $60 per issue. Published in bilingual form, the HKMDS is a compact volume of official statistics containing over 130 tables. It collects up-to-date statistical series on various aspects of the social and economic situation of Hong Kong. Topics include population and vital events; labour; external trade; industrial production; land, housing, building and construction; transport, communications and tourism; public accounts, money and finance; prices; commerce; social conditions; energy; and national income and Balance of Payments. For selected key statistical items, over 20 charts depicting the annual trend in the past decade and quarterly or monthly trend in the recent two years are also available.
As from the May 2003 issue, selected sections of the Digest are available for purchase online. In order to better meet the needs of readers who are interested in official statistics of specific subject areas, the 13 sections of the Digest are grouped into four sections : (i) Population, Labour and Social Statistics, (ii) External Trade, Commerce and Industry and Energy Statistics, (iii) Housing, Transport, Communications and Tourism Statistics, and (iv) Money and Finance, National Income, Balance of Payments and Price Statistics. Besides, feature articles in each issue are also grouped to form one separate section. All the five selected sections are currently available in softcopy only and can be purchased at the online "Statistical Bookstore, Hong Kong" (Address : http://www.statisticalbookstore.gov.hk) on the same day when the Digest is released.
Available in both hardcopy (full version only) and softcopy (in PDF format for both the full version and selected sections), the HKMDS and other publications of the Census and Statistics Department can be purchased in person from:
(i) Government Publications Centre, Ground Floor, Low Block, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong (Tel.: 2537 1910); or
(ii) Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department, 19th Floor, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong (Tel.: 2582 3025).
Internet users may purchase the publications online at the "Statistical Bookstore, Hong Kong" (Address: http://www.statisticalbookstore.gov.hk) with payment made instantly. Softcopies of the publications purchased are available for immediate downloading while hardcopies purchased will be delivered by mail. Subscription to regular publications and advance ordering of upcoming releases are also available. Apart from publications, softcopies of statistical tables containing more detailed statistics than those in publications are also available for sale. The Statistical Bookstore is hosted on the ESD portal (Address: http://www.esd.gov.hk) together with other public services.
A mail order form for ordering or arranging subscription to hardcopies of publications is available in most publications of the Census and Statistics Department. It may be completed and sent back together with a cheque or bank draft covering all necessary cost and postage. The order form is also available for downloading from the website of the Department (Address : http://www.info.gov.hk/censtatd/eng/service_desk/forms_index.html).
Enquiries about the contents of the HKMDS can be directed to the General Statistics Section (1)B of the Census and Statistics Department (Tel. : 2582 4738).
End/Monday, July 21, 2003
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