Hong Kong remains attractive to world capital

Hong Kong's global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows ranked the third among world economies in 2012, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development's World Investment Report 2013 released Thursday. FDI flows into Hong Kong exceeded 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, compared to a revised 96 billion U.S. dollars in 2011. The report said the situation has been improving since the end of 2012 as strong capital inflows were seen in Hong Kong again. Hong Kong ranked behind the United States (167.6 billion U.S. dollars) and the Chinese mainland (121 billion U.S. dollars) in attracting FDI. InvestHK's Investment Promotion Director-General Simon Galpin said against the backdrop of a global decline in investment, Hong Kong remains a significant conduit for both inbound and outbound investment. Global FDI inflows in 2012 reached 1.35 trillion U.S. dollars, contracting 18 percent over 2011. Inflows are expected to gradually pick up to 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2014 and 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2015, according to the report. Hong Kong ranked fourth in the world's outbound investment last year with 83.9 billion U.S. dollars, behind the United States (328. 8 billion U.S. dollars), Japan (122.5 billion U.S. dollars) and the Chinese mainland (84.2 billion U.S. dollars), but ahead of the United Kingdom (71.4 billion U.S. dollars). Galpin said Hong Kong remains attractive for multinationals using the city as regional headquarters, adding the city has become a center of global operations for leading companies. Many mainland companies are also using Hong Kong as their springboard to go global, thus creating many opportunities for the city, he added.