Asset-management industry business receipts rose 52 percent in 2006 over a year earlier, Hong Kong's Census & Statistics Department said Friday.

In a feature article published in the latest issue of the Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, the department said there were 190 companies in the industry in 2005, engaging about 3,600 people.

The industry generated 12.7 billion HK dollars (1.54 billion U. S. dollars) of business receipts and other income in 2005, up 22 percent over a year earlier. Of this, 85 percent were charges for rendering portfolio management and financial-advisory services, while the rest were mainly other service charges, dividends and interest income.

The trade's gross surplus rose from 3.5 billion HK dollars (448. 72 million U.S. dollars) in 2004 to 3.9 billion HK dollars (500 million U.S. dollars) in 2005. In 2005, the asset-management business's value added amounted to 11.6 billion HK dollars (1.49 billion U.S. dollars), contributing to 0.86 percent of GDP at factor cost.

The department believed the industry in Hong Kong will continue to flourish because the financial-services sector will be able to provide more asset-management services to the increasingly affluent Chinese mainland residents and to the increasingly cash- rich mainland enterprises.

Source: Xinhua