Flemish Economic Commissioner Bernard de Guchteneere could hardly believe his eyes when he attended a recent trade show at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. He counted 46 Belgian companies promoting their wares.
'It was extraordinary, unbelievable,' he said. 'Hong Kong is widely known for its fairs, but normally we only have three or four Belgian firms represented.' By all accounts, the huge corps who turned out this time were grateful they made the effort. 'They had a fantastic response,' Mr De Guchteneere said. 'Firms had also done their research. I was impressed.' The turnout underlined Belgium's fast-growing enthusiasm to develop trading links with Hong Kong and reflected a bullish outlook on the future of the SAR which was also observed by Belgium Business Association chairman George Legros during the handover.
Journalists swarmed from Belgium's TV networks, radio stations and newspapers and he remembered: 'They were all desperate to try to find a Belgian who was pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong. But I don't think they found one. The entire community here is quite positive.' Step forward a few months and the stolid optimism expressed as history was in the making has not diminished.
'The situation is even better than most optimists expected,' Mr Legros said. 'I think China has handled the transition well. There is no interference and the Hong Kong Government is pretty much in charge.' Not only was it 'business as usual', he said, rather, in many ways, the business climate had improved.
'Following reunification, we have a friendly China across the border, which was not really the case before because of all the difficulties with Britain,' he said.
'Now everybody is on the same side.' Like the Flemish Economic Commissioner, Mr Legros has also observed growing interest in the Hong Kong market from Belgium's predominantly small and medium-sized businesses.
'A lot of people think Belgium is all about diamonds, chocolate and beer,' he said. 'But there is much more than that, including all sorts of hi-tech companies making sophisticated equipment - and more and more of them are coming to Hong Kong and China in search of new markets.' A glance at the range of Belgian exporters listed by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council confirms his point. While diamonds account for one-third of all sales to Hong Kong, dozens of other industries, with 3 per cent or less of the export share, make up the remainder.
