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"From my experience of having set up 145 offices in 43 countries and regions, Hong Kong is still the best place for investment in the world," James Thompson, chairman of American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said in an interview Thursday.
Thompson just won the Personality of the Year award conferred by FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) magazine of the London-based Financial Times in the Netherlands last week.
Now that Hong Kong has been officially removed from the World Health Organization's (WHO) SARS-affected area list, Thompson said almost all of the US businessmen's family members have returned to Hong Kong. He described the recent good news as extremely encouraging.
Thompson is a classic example of a self-made man whose record management and logistics business, Crown Worldwide Holdings, just celebrated its 25th anniversary a few days ago.
Devoted to both his own business and promoting Hong Kong as the best place for investment for US businesses, he recently disseminated sets of promotional materials on Hong Kong to the chamber's 2,000-odd members in the hope that when they travel back to the United States for business and holiday, they will bring with them a positive message on the city to their friends and colleagues.
About 40 members of the chamber are set to travel back to the United States in the latter half of this year, he said.
Thompson is so enthusiastic about inviting Americans to come to Hong Kong to set up their offices that he has even mapped out a strategic promotional plan for Hong Kong himself -- the Hong Kong International Festival, to be staged at the Tamar site in Central, if it is accepted by the Hong Kong government. "Currently, we are meeting Hong Kong government officials to discuss the feasibility of the plan. Once the plan gets accepted, renowned American singers and sportsmen are expected to come to Hong Kong for a series of grand events, which will also be broadcast by a national television station in the United States," he said.
However, Thompson said he believes that at the end of the day, Hong Kong's success hinges on the effort of every one that lives and works here. He used the Hong Kong medical workers' spirit of being willing to make sacrifices during the anti-SARS period as an allegorical example. He said businesses should avoid retrenchment or minimize retrenchment of staff even in times of difficulty and increase recruitment in good times.
Thompson said he is confident that once the Hong Kong economy picks up, Hong Kong's tourism, catering and retail industries shall create more jobs, and thereby alleviating unemployment here.
A happy-go-luck type of man, Thompson is fully confident about Hong Kong, saying the Hong Kong people themselves should be more confident about Hong Kong's future, encouraging those who possess funds to aid in Hong Kong's recovery by increasing consumption and investment.
Commenting on Hong Kong's business environment, he said Hong Kong's highly acclaimed solid financial system, the intact rule of law, low taxation, reliable transport infrastructure and freedom of the press have all remained unchanged about six years after Hong Kong's return to the motherland.
Thompson, who started his earliest company in Tokyo with US$1,000, moved to Hong Kong in 1978, where invested US$50,000 to establish his current business in Hong Kong. Now the company manages the warehousing of 5 million boxes of document. In the past 25 years, his business has grown in size, as has the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Currently the chamber boasts a membership of 2,200.
Commenting on the Hong Kong government's plan of legislating on Article 23 of the Basic Law to protect national security, Thompson said he does not think such legislation will affect foreign businesses in Hong Kong in any way.
Now with Hong Kong's business community expecting the signing of Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), Thompson said the arrangement will be a positive one for Hong Kong's businesses. For the manufacturing industry, he said CEPA's promise on zero tariff will make it an incentive for high-tech intensive industries to manufacture in Hong Kong.
For CEPA's benefits to the services industry, Thompson said he hopes that one day he will be able to transform his companies' 10 representative offices on the Chinese mainland into branch offices. By so doing, he said he will substantially increase his investments in logistics staff and facilities.
Thompson said 20 years of speedy economic growth on the Chinese mainland is now a tower of strength that continues to provide great support to the world's economic growth.
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2003)
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