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Interview: HK Remains Ideal Place for Business
"On a scale of 10, I will give Hong Kong 9.5," said President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham) Frank Martin in reference to the region's current business and investment environment.
"Hong Kong remains an ideal international trade and financial center despite the undesirable air quality," Martin told Xinhua on the eve of the third anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1, 1997.
AmCham members are fully confident in Hong Kong's business environment since the integrity of legal system and free flow of information are two major pillars behind the confidence, said the president.
"The judicial system of Hong Kong is working today as well as it was prior to Hong Kong's return to China on July 1, 1997. It is still a legal system based on the British common law, which is what makes the 'one country, two systems' principle very unique," Martin said.
"Freedom of press, basically an asset of Hong Kong, is guaranteed under the Basic Law," he added.
The 1999 business outlook survey by AmCham indicated that 84 percent of the more than 1,000 AmCham member companies responding to the survey foresee a good and satisfactory outlook of Hong Kong 's business environment for the year 2000. Of the 75 percent of respondents that have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, 81 percent said they would retain their regional base here.
Moreover, the survey results suggest Hong Kong's investment environment will improve sharply in 2001, with respondents expecting this positive outlook to be sustained through 2004.
Mentioning the economic downturn in Hong Kong over the past years, he pointed out that it is a result of the regional financial crisis. "It has nothing to do with China's resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong," he said.
Speaking on the impact of the impending China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Hong Kong, he held that China's accession to the world trade body is good for the global economy and will produce a positive impact on Hong Kong.
He predicted that Hong Kong will perhaps have to accept a smaller piece of a big pie, but it will eventually be a larger one.
AmCham has lent firm support to China's WTO membership and the grant of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status to China. Last month, Martin led a senior delegation to Washington D.C. to voice the unequivocal support of the American business community in Hong Kong and Shanghai for unconditional PNTR status for China. He was among the lobbyists from Asia Pacific region who had to walk along many Congressional corridors on Capital Hill during the week-long AmCham Washington doorknock.
The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a bill on PNTR with China on May 24 and the Senate is expected to vote on the bill in July.
Martin, 59, who was born in Pennsylvania, has settled in Hong Kong with his family since 1976 and is a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He is very proud of his two children who received 13 years' education in Hong Kong, from kindergarten to high school.
He had been president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Canton for 14 years. Having been on his current post for nearly a decade, the longest term in the history of the 1969-founded AmCham, he was proud of having participated in Hong Kong's celebration for the handover in 1997.
"It is the most exciting point in my term. To be part of that is very significant. We had a huge black-tie dinner at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Center, with all the international chambers present. Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa also joined us," he recalled.
Martin remembered that, prior to Hong Kong's handover on June 30, 1997, some of the western media were very skeptical about Hong Kong's future and wrote many negative reports, some of which were entitled with things like "the death of Hong Kong" or "the betrayal of Hong Kong."
However, "I am happy to say that not a single one of these predictions has come true."
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