HONGKONG is holding its own among Asia's newly industrialised economies of Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea.
In terms of international distribution, foreign investment and international commercial alliances, the territory ranks top in the region, according to the World Competitiveness Report 1993.
The result of the work of a team of economists from the World Economic Forum and the Institute of Management Development, the report assessed competitiveness as a multi-dimensional concept, guided by 330 criteria coming under eight major categories.
The report combines hard data from international organisations on economic performance, inflation rates and gross domestic product (GDP) growth, as well as insights derived from a survey of 18,000 business executives worldwide.
From the views of those surveyed, Hongkong emerges with a positive image of an internationalised economic city, even in the wake of the unsettled Sino-British verbal conflict that plagues the territory. Indeed, the amount of confidence shown from both the international and domestic arenas is very encouraging.
While the territory's GDP for 1991 was at US$70.1 billion - against the United States' $5.67 trillion - tailing behind countries such as Thailand and Taiwan, eight out of 10 people surveyed nevertheless thought the territory was unlikely to be in recession over the next two years.