The government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will underscore Hong Kong's appeal as a platform for international companies to reach the Chinese mainland and the Asia Pacific region, a government press release said Thursday.

According to a press release from the Information Services Department of HKSAR government, Hong Kong Commissioner to the United States Donald Tong met with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce earlier Wednesday, and updated members of the Chamber on the latest economic situation in Hong Kong.

Tong said Hong Kong's economy performed reasonably well in 2008 with economic growth in the 3 to 3.5 percent range. He pointed out that in the first half of 2008, Hong Kong had some 34 billion U.S. dollars foreign direct investment or a 25 percent year-on-year increase which underscores Hong Kong's appeal as a platform for international companies to reach the Chinese mainland and the Asia Pacific region.

The commissioner emphasized that Hong Kong's economy had been consistently ranked as the freest in the world, most recently by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, which ranked Hong Kong as the world's freest economy for the 15th consecutive year.

He also said that Hong Kong was committed to the free market principles, free trade, a free flow of information, capital and people as well as a low and simple tax system.

As an externally oriented economy, Hong Kong is not immune to the current global financial crisis, Tong noted. Unemployment rate has lately climbed up to 4.6 percent.

He said the HKSAR government had put in place a full range of measures to deal with these challenges. A 12.8-billion-U.S.- dollars loan guarantee program was introduced to help unfreeze credit for the business community, in particular, for the small and medium enterprises. Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland also agreed on a currency swap pact to provide short-term liquidity support to mainland operations of Hong Kong banks and the Hong Kong operations of mainland banks in case of need.

In addition, to boost public confidence and to help ease the liquidity for the business community, the HKSAR government has guaranteed all bank deposits and established a mechanism to provide additional capital to banks, if requested, until at least 2010.

Tong also said the HKSAR government had increased public expenditure and largely fast-tracking infrastructure projects so as to create more than 60,000 jobs in 2009. The private sector had also joined the government in creating jobs.

During his meeting, Tong highlighted some of the new initiatives Hong Kong was undertaking, including promoting Hong Kong as a destination for "Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibition" and developing Hong Kong into a regional hub for wine-related business.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2009)