Invest Hong Kong, the Hong Kong government's investment promotion department, announced Thursday that in 2004 it assisted 205 foreign companies to set up or expand operations in Hong Kong, the record high for the department, representing a substantial increase of 44 percent over 2003.

At a press briefing Thursday morning, Invest Hong Kong's Director-General of Investment Promotion Mike Rowse said these 205 companies immediately created more than 3,000 jobs and planned to create another 4,600 jobs in the next two years.

"These companies have given their vote of confidence in our ity and are committed to developing their business with our community," Rowse said.

In the first three quarters of 2004, Hong Kong attracted more than 24.8 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment. "That's about twice as much as the whole of 2003," he said.

The number of regional headquarters and regional offices in Hong Kong reached record highs in 2004. As of June 1, 2004, there were 1,098 companies with regional headquarters and 2,511 companies with regional offices here.

"These encouraging figures show that investors still regard Hong Kong as the ideal location to operate their businesses in the region. Hong Kong's fundamental advantages including the free flow of information and low tax regime remain major attractions for foreign companies. We are confident that we will continue to attract more foreign investment in Hong Kong in 2005," Rowse said.

The department has raised its target for 2005 by 10 percent, to 220 investment projects.

Invest HK helped six companies from the mainland set up in Hong Kong in 2002, 17 in 2003 and 35 last year, that represented about 17 percent of completed projects, according to Rowse.

These companies are "using Hong Kong as a market in its own right, or as a springboard to go out into the rest of the world," Rowse said, "I wouldn't be surprised if the total number of mainland customers in our base reaches more than 20 percent."

Source: Xinhua