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Why you can trust SCMP
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EVERY NOW AND THEN, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) does something to make me think that it is perhaps not quite the wastrel organisation I otherwise accuse it of being.

An example showed up in my in-tray the other day from the TDC's research department in its Trade Watch publication. These people had posed some questions that everyone in Hong Kong asks and then went to the bother of looking for answers in a survey of private enterprises across the border.

The questions were simple ones. To what extent do corporations in the mainland see Hong Kong as their window on the world? How much do they rely on us as their international financial centre and how many of them are considering setting up office here? The survey polled 906 enterprises in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the three most economically developed provinces in China, and the findings were unequivocal - the respondents took the view that no other city in China or elsewhere in Asia can replace Hong Kong.

Just look at the table on survey responses to tell you why we do not really need to worry that the services base of our economy is about to be hollowed out.

On all major counts we are considered far and away the tops, even on human resources when it is a claim you can hear made every day that talent in China is now better than talent in Hong Kong.

We also scored most highly in our legal system, with 81.7 per cent citing it as a plus point for us, followed by 68.1 per cent for free economic policy, 62 per cent for clean and efficient government and 59 per cent for an environment for fair competition.

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