The Government is spending eight million Swiss francs (about HK$41.84 million) on an Economic and Trade Office in Geneva, in a symbolic move aimed at signalling that Hong Kong trade matters will be kept separate from China after In an unprecedented move, the Government has bought land for the premises and is building the office to its own specifications, which it hopes to be able to move into by the end of the year.
The move was prompted by increasingly cramped conditions in the present office, which has a floor space of 600 square metres and is in the same building as the European Union's mission to Geneva.
While helping the office cope with its expanded role since Hong Kong became a founder member of the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) in January 1995, the move also is aimed at reinforcing the 'one country two systems' principle after the handover.
'We are hoping to move in the last quarter of the year . . . the building is well above ground and the shell is almost complete,' Hong Kong's permanent WTO representative Stuart Harbinson said.
Since its establishment as a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), Hong Kong has played a prominent role in WTO affairs.
In 1995, Mr Harbinson was made the WTO's first chairman of its Committee on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Last month, Hong Kong deputy permanent representative Timothy Tong was appointed chairman of the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade.