What are the pillars of Hong Kong’s economy?

The four pillar industries of Hong Kong’s economy: trade and logistics (the added value of this industry accounted for 21.7% of GDP in 2016), financial industry (17.7%), professional services and other productive services (12.5% ) and tourism (4.7%).

The six industries in which Hong Kong has obvious advantages and can be further developed are cultural and creative industries, medical industries, education industries, innovation and technology industries, testing and certification industries, and environmental protection industries. In 2016, the added value of these six industries accounted for 8.9% of GDP.

Hong Kong’s economic characteristics:

1. The freest economy in the world;

2. The economy with the highest degree of service industry dominance in the world, with the service industry accounting for GDP More than 90%;

3. Foreign direct investment stock and investment rank second in the world, second only to the United States;

Extended information:

Hong Kong’s economic structure

Investment flows: Hong Kong is a very attractive market in terms of direct foreign investment. According to the 2017 World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Hong Kong attracted US$108 billion in direct foreign investment in 2016, ranking fourth in the world and second only to Mainland China (US$134 billion) in Asia.

In terms of outward direct investment outflows, Hong Kong ranks third in Asia, with an amount of US$62 billion, ranking behind Mainland China (US$183 billion) and Japan (US$145 billion).

According to government surveys, Hong Kong’s stock of direct foreign investment was estimated at US$1.626 billion at the end of 2016. One major feature of these direct foreign investments is that many of them are funds indirectly transferred back to Hong Kong by non-business operating companies established in tax havens.

In this context, in 2016, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, the Netherlands and Bermuda accounted for 34.2%, 7.7%, 6.3% and 4.7% of the direct foreign investment stock respectively.

In addition to tax havens, mainland China remains Hong Kong’s most important source of direct investment (accounting for 25.7% of the total). Other major sources include the United States (2.5%), Singapore (2.3%) and the United Kingdom (2.2%). Most of the direct investment stock is related to the service industry, including investment and holdings, real estate, professional and business services; banking and import and export trade, wholesale and retail.

Official website of Guangdong Department of Industry and Information Technology-Basic situation of Hong Kong’s industrial and information development