Reaching new heights
Hong Kong is a dynamic business, finance, trading, shipping and events hub. It is also a leading design and innovation centre, and home to a flourishing fashion and film industry. A powerful combination of factors – prime location, rule of law, high-speed communications, free flow of information and capital, low and simple tax system and a pro-business government – makes Hong Kong a leading international business and financial centre, consistently ranked the world's freest economy. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2019 charted Hong Kong as the 2nd most competitive economy, whilst World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2019 ranked Hong Kong 3rd for global competitiveness.
Hong Kong is an ideal place for overseas and Mainland companies to run their regional and local operations. In 2019, we see a record high number of over 9 000 overseas and Mainland companies established in Hong Kong, representing an increase of 10% from 2018. As one of the fastest growing start-up hubs in the world, the Hong Kong start-up ecosystem has seen impressive growth over the past few years. The city now hosts over 2 620 start-ups. Needless to say, the city is one of the world's leading international financial hubs, and the world's largest offshore Renminbi business centre.
With world-class universities and technology infrastructure such as Cyberport and Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong is a prominent international R&D hub in the region. The HKSAR government lends support in the form of grants and infrastructure, as well as by fostering a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem that welcomes and nurtures tech start-up and overseas talent. In the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2019, Hong Kong was ranked 8th globally. The innovative spirit is also deep-rooted in our creative industries. Hong Kong as a creative powerhouse with more than 134 000 practitioners engaged in fields ranging from design to publishing, interactive games to animation and comics, advertising to architecture, and music to film and TV production.