RIYADH, 30 January 2008 — Starting from next Monday, all Saudi citizens will have the opportunity to receive a one-month free visa to Hong Kong in a move aimed to encourage locals and businessmen to visit the Asian business hub, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Donald Tsang said yesterday.
Tsang, who arrived on Monday in the Kingdom on his first visit to the country, met Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in Riyadh.
Accompanied by dozens of top executives representing the finest of Hong Kong’s business enterprises, his mission was to boost bilateral cooperation and seek joint business ventures in the Kingdom.
During his speech at a gathering of Saudi-Hong Kong businessmen, Tsang urged Saudi businessmen to visit Hong Kong and seek investment opportunities there. “I invite Saudi banks and financial services companies to consider diversifying their global reach through Hong Kong,” he said.
The reunification of Hong Kong with mainland China in 1997 has not hindered, but on the contrary, further boosted economic development in Hong Kong, Tsang pointed out.
“As of now, 3,900 international companies have regional bases in Hong Kong. That is 55 percent more than what it was in 1997,” he said, adding that over 80 IPOs were signed in Hong Kong last year alone worth $38 billion.
“There is still plenty of room and we would like to see more Saudi Arabian companies establishing a base in our city,” he said.
Among the benefits of investing in Hong Kong are the multicultural atmosphere, the independent judiciary system and the encouragement by the government to boost small companies, he said.
“Our unique way of life is protected by our constitution document, the Basic Law. Under the Basic Law, we remain a separate member of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization,” he said. “We continue to negotiate our own services agreements and maintain our own shipping register. We have our own passport and our own tax system, and we have our own freely convertible currency.”
According to the US-based think tank the Heritage Foundation, for the past 14 years, Hong Kong has been ranked as the freest economy in the world.
Tsang particularly focused on Islamic banking and invited Saudi bankers to invest in Hong Kong in that area. He mentioned that evidence has shown that a large part of the demand for Islamic bonds comes from non-Muslim investors who have found the yield and structure of those products attractive.
“Hong Kong is a good platform to service these investors,” he said. “A significant number of leading international banks in Hong Kong has already devoted considerable resources to the creation and servicing of Islamic financial products. He also mentioned that recently the first Islamic retail fund was opened in Hong Kong. “By December last year, the fund had already attracted some $45 million worth of orders,” he said.
Other areas where Saudis were invited to invest are in infrastructure sector. New projects coming up in Hong Kong in the next five to 10 years include new bridges, highways, and a 30-km bridge linking Hong Kong to Macao and the mainland of China.
