Malaysia joined Hong Kong's top 10 trading partners last year in the wake of consistently booming exports throughout the 1990s and another 16 per cent jump in two-way trade last year.
SAR investment in the state, meanwhile, edged up as well - but at a substantially slower pace as Malaysia's manufacturing focus switches from textiles and garments to the hi-tech industry led by players from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States.
'The country no longer serves as just a cheap manufacturing centre,' says a Hong Kong Trade Development Council report on Malaysia's economic U-turn.
'Now the Malaysian economy is entering another stage of structural change. Its industry is shifting towards hi-tech and capital-intensive industries - and is already among the leading exporters of semi-conductors in the world.' With information technology giants swooping, global investment leapt by 64 per cent last year to US$13.6 billion, dwarfing Hong Kong's total investment of just US$1.14 billion since the early 1970s.
'Traditionally, Hong Kong has been an important source of capital and know-how in the development of Malaysia's manufacturing sector, although interests were concentrated in the production of textiles and garments,' according to an economic ministry report.
Hong Kong does show signs of moving with Malaysia's changing times, however.