Hong Kong ranks as the world's freest economies
The Fraser Institute published the Economic Freedom of the World 2024 Annual Report (2024 Report) today (October 16). Hong Kong ranks as the world's freest economies among 165 economies, up by one place from last year. Among the five areas of assessment in the 2024 Report, Hong Kong ranks top in "Freedom to trade internationally" and "Regulation", and its ranking in "Sound money" rises to third globally.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government said, "For long, Hong Kong has fully leveraged the advantages of a free market, and maintained a free, open, effective and fair business environment. The ranking fully reflects the international recognition of these advantages."
"Hong Kong's free market and premier business environment are attributable to our distinctive institutional strengths of the 'one country, two systems' arrangement, including the practice of the common law system, robust rule of law, a judiciary that exercises powers independently, free flow of goods and factors of production such as capital, talent, and information, a simple tax system and low tax rates, a conducive business environment as well as efficient and transparent markets, a regulatory regime that adheres to international standards, among others. These factors have made Hong Kong an ideal city for doing business.
"Indeed, over 9000 overseas and Mainland companies have chosen Hong Kong as their base to fully leverage Hong Kong's roles and functions as a 'super connector' and a 'super value-adder'. The current-term HKSAR Government has been proactively attracting enterprises to settle in Hong Kong and talent to come to Hong Kong for development, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Since the end of 2022, more than 100 prominent innovation and technology enterprises from around the world have decided to establish or expand their businesses in Hong Kong. These enterprises would invest a total of more than $50 billion in the city, creating more than 15000 jobs. In the first nine months this year, Invest Hong Kong also assisted 470 Mainland and overseas enterprises to establish or expand their businesses in Hong Kong, up by around 57 per cent from the same period last year. In terms of attracting talent, from the end of 2022 to September this year, over 380000 applications were received under various talent schemes, of which nearly 240000 were approved, and around 160000 people have arrived in Hong Kong. These figures underscore Hong Kong's strong appeal to both overseas and Mainland enterprises and talent.
"Looking forward, with the staunch support of the country, we will proactively integrate into the overall national development, align with national development strategies, maintain and improve a free and open business environment, and continue to serve as a two-way springboard for attracting international enterprises to Hong Kong and supporting Mainland enterprises to 'go global'. The Policy Address delivered by the Chief Executive today has set out clear directions, as well as specific and impactful policies and measures to reinforce and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international financial, shipping and trading centre, build itself into an international hub for high-calibre talent, develop new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, and foster collaboration with the Greater Bay Area, so as to further enhance Hong Kong's development momentum, and promote the high-quality development of Hong Kong's economy.
As to references on Hong Kong’s economic and other freedoms in the 2024 Report, the spokesman emphasised, "The HKSAR Government protects the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents in strict accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law, and the interests of enterprises and investors are also fully safeguarded in accordance with the law. According to various surveys, foreign businesses in Hong Kong generally have confidence in Hong Kong's rule of law. The HKSAR Government hopes that future assessments in Economic Freedom of the World can fully reflect the relevant facts."
University Grants Committee welcomes "The Chief Executive's 2024 Policy Address"
The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The Chairman of the University Grants Committee (UGC), Mr Tim Lui, said today (October 16) that he welcomed the Chief Executive's announcement of several relevant measures in the 2024 Policy Address, which aim at nurturing future talent and establishing the "Study in Hong Kong" brand. The UGC will join hands with the eight UGC-funded universities to optimise Hong Kong's competitive advantages under "One Country, Two Systems", as well as the highly internationalised and diversified characters of the higher education landscape, thereby pressing ahead with the development of Hong Kong into an international hub for post-secondary education and high-calibre talent.
The Government announced in this year's Policy Address that it will establish the Hong Kong Future Talents Scholarship Scheme for Advanced Studies (SSAS) starting from the 2025/26 academic year, under which up to 1200 local students enrolling in designated taught postgraduate programmes will receive a scholarship each year.
Mr Lui said, "Over the past five years, the UGC has implemented the Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes Fellowships Scheme on a pilot basis, which incentivised local students with aspirations for advanced studies to pursue over 100 master's programmes within our priority areas. They have fuelled Hong Kong's impetus for development as they equip themselves for the future. We welcome the establishment of the SSAS by the Government with reference to the experience and achievements of the pilot scheme. This clearly demonstrates the Government's commitment towards the nurturing of high-calibre local talent and the development of new quality productive forces."
The Policy Address also announced that Hong Kong will strive to host international education conferences and exhibitions, as well as encourage local post-secondary institutions to enhance collaboration and exchanges with their counterparts around the world in promoting the "Study in Hong Kong" brand on a global scale. In this regard, the UGC will further strengthen collaboration with the Heads of Universities Committee's Standing Committee on Internationalisation to actively enhance external promotion efforts targeting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other Belt and Road countries, and strive to foster closer partnerships with institutions worldwide in student mobility and research collaboration. The UGC also welcomed the Government's introduction of a series of new measures to improve hostel facilities, including a pilot scheme to encourage the market to convert hotels and other commercial buildings into student hostels on a self-financing and privately funded basis. This will increase the supply of student hostels and facilitate the recruitment of more non-local students to pursue their studies in Hong Kong.
In terms of research promotion, the UGC extended its gratitude to the Government for providing $1.5 billion to launch a new round of the Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS), which will incentivise more organisations to fund research activities by institutions. The inaugural round of the RMGS was concluded with resounding success in July 2024, which effectively expanded research funding sources of the higher education sector. The UGC also welcomed the introduction of a series of measures to facilitate close collaboration among the Government, industry, academic, research and investment sectors. Mr Lui is confident that the new round of the RMGS as well as various measures will deepen the collaboration between higher education and other sectors, thereby raising Hong Kong's research capabilities as well as enhancing the local ecosystem for innovation and technology.
Mr Lui continued, "Looking ahead, our higher education sector can tap into the immense opportunities presented by the Northern Metropolis University Town to leverage our distinctive advantage of having strong support from the motherland and close connection with the world, thereby enabling Hong Kong to scale new heights. Together with our UGC-funded universities, we will devote ourselves relentlessly to cultivating local talent, attracting elites from all over the world and reinforcing our global reputation, so as to contribute positively to Hong Kong's development into an international hub for post-secondary education."
