Overseas companies operating in HK up 2.6%

Twenty percent of the companies said they may expand their businesses in Hong Kong.

The number of overseas and Mainland companies running business operations in Hong Kong has increased 2.6% in the last year to 6,561, according to an annual survey released by Invest Hong Kong and the Census & Statistics Department on Tuesday.

Director-General of Investment Promotion Simon Galpin said the encouraging results reflect Hong Kong's economic rebound in the wake of the global financial crisis.

"Hong Kong continues to be an attractive city for these companies to base their operations in this part of Asia," he said.

Of the 6,561 companies surveyed, 1,285 are regional headquarters, 2,353 are regional offices and 2,923 are local offices. This represents a year-on-year growth of 2.6%, 1.1% and 3.8%.

Among the companies, 20% said they may expand their businesses in Hong Kong in the next three years either by increasing staff, expanding the scope of business functions or increasing office size.

Finance and banking saw the most robust growth and reinforces Hong Kong's status as a world-leading international financial centre. Regional headquarters increased 5% to 135 and local offices rose 13% to 622.

The US tops the list with a combined total of 1,263 regional headquarters, regional offices and local offices, followed by Japan with 1,085, the Mainland with 789 and the UK with 505.

The top five favourable factors for choosing Hong Kong to set up offices are its simple tax system and low tax rate, the free flow of information, a corruption-free government, the absence of exchange controls, as well as political stability and security.

About 64% of the companies said the overall business environment in Hong Kong as a location for setting up offices had remained more or less the same, and 13% said it had improved on a year ago.