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2017/09/27
Competitiveness Index Highlights Hong Kong’s Strengths and Weaknesses
   

For Immediate Release

The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) is encouraged to see that Hong Kong has made the largest leap among the 10 most competitive economies on the planet to finish sixth in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Index rankings.
 
Our ranking as having the world’s best physical infrastructure, in addition to strong macroeconomic environment, financial market development and goods market efficiency all scored highly as the key pillars of our economy.
 
“We have always done very well in infrastructure, financial markets and efficiency, so we are pleased to see we haven’t lost any ground on our core strengths,” said Chamber Chairman Stephen Ng. “What we need to focus more on now is bringing up the level of business sophistication and innovation, not least fintech and smartcity development. We need to keep ahead of the pack, because Hong Kong has never before faced such intense competition from other markets in the region and around the world.”
 
Hong Kong managed to show strong improvement in the latest survey in the pillars for business sophistication (11th) and innovation (26th), but these still fall far behind our competitors. While encouraging, the Chamber feels the results show that Hong Kong needs to be moving faster.
 
Businesses surveyed ranked insufficient capacity to innovate, government bureaucracy, inadequately educated workforce and restrictive labour regulations are the most problematic factors for doing business. “All these are problems which are basically self-inflicted and we have been warning the Government for years about the need to tackle these head-on,” said Ng.
 
Chamber CEO Shirley Yuen said the problematic areas for Hong Kong’s economy and competitiveness pinpointed in the WEF survey mirror the sentiments of members in the Chamber’s own surveys.
 
The Chamber’s recent submission to the Government outlined a number of proposals which aim to directly tackle many of these issues. With proper direction and political will, Yuen said she hopes the Chief Executive can use her Policy Address next month to ease many of the problems that have dogged businesses and the economy for years.
 
“We urged the Government to conduct regulatory impact assessments and follow the U.K.’s policy of ‘one-in, two-out’ rule that helps prevent creating unnecessary regulations. These avoid increasing costs and paperwork for both business and Government,” said Yuen. “We very much hope that these, and the initiatives that the Government has already pledged to roll out, like the two-tier tax system, can be speedily implemented.”
 


Media inquiries: Please contact Mr Ray Lai at 2823 1297 / [email protected]

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