Promoting Hong Kong overseas is essential to further strengthen our position as an international financial centre.

Since I took up this job, I have visited a number of cities in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Mainland to keep them abreast of Hong Kong's latest developments and quality financial services.

In late May, I visited Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. I met and exchanged views with government officials in charge of financial affairs as well as members of the financial and business sectors to gain first-hand information of the financial and economic developments of these countries. During the visit, I was warmly received and all parties look forward to maintaining contact and co-operation with each other.

What I learned and saw during the visit corroborated Hong Kong's remarkable achievements and immense advantages in the region in various areas such as financial services and tourism. We can certainly take pride in all of our achievements. 

Jakarta

The first leg of my trip to Southeast Asia was the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Indonesia's economy has recovered from the Asian financial crisis. There has also been progress in its financial developments.

According to the latest figures of the Federation of World Exchanges, Indonesia has a stock market capitalisation of over US$53 billion (equivalent to over $410 billion) while Hong Kong's market capitalisation is over $5,400 billion, more than 13 times that of Indonesia.

Hong Kong's stock market ranks among the 10 largest in the world. In the first five months of 2004, average daily turnover of Hong Kong stocks amounted to over $17.7 billion.

While in Jakarta, I met some prominent overseas Chinese there. They expressed interest in Hong Kong's latest developments including the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme which was launched last October.

As you may recall, I talked about the scheme in this column in April. Many of the overseas Chinese I met in Indonesia consider Hong Kong an ideal place in which to invest and live. Some members of the banking sector there also believe that the scheme could open up business opportunities for them.

Singapore

During my visit to Singapore, I addressed a symposium organised by the Conference Board on the development of the Asian financial markets.

I encouraged Asian economies to develop a regional bond market as an alternative channel for capital raising other than bank loans and stock market listings, thereby enhancing the stability of the financial markets.

Besides attending the symposium, I visited some financial organisations and exchanged views with members of the financial services sector.

According to the Federation of World Exchanges, Singapore has a market capitalisation of over US$153 billion (equivalent to over $1,190 billion), which means Hong Kong's stock market is more than four times the size of Singapore's. Singapore and Hong Kong have their own edges in attracting listings of overseas companies.

For Hong Kong, thanks to the various advantages we enjoy, such as our financial infrastructure and our close links to the Motherland, many Mainland enterprises have sought to raise capital via a Hong Kong listing.

At present, Mainland enterprises account for about 30% of our total market capitalisation. It is expected that the number of Mainland enterprises coming to list here will continue to increase. This gives us a distinct edge in the further development of our financial market.

Kuala Lumpur

The last leg of my trip was Malaysia's capital �V Kuala Lumpur. A popular tourist destination for Hong Kong people, Malaysia has abundant natural resources and beautiful scenery. It has a population three and a half times that of Hong Kong and an area 300 times that of Hong Kong.

Last year, Malaysia attracted some 10 million visitors. Of these, 350,000 were from the Mainland. In Hong Kong, last year we attracted more than 15 million visitor arrivals of which over eight million (or 54%) were from the Mainland. The figure of visitor arrivals is forecast to increase to 20 million this year.

Since the launch of the Individual Visit Scheme, the number of Mainland visitors to Hong Kong has risen substantially.

With the inclusion of nine more cities in the scheme with effect from July 1, the population of the provinces and cities covered by the scheme will exceed 150 million. This demonstrates the enormous potential for our tourism development and is conducive to Hong Kong's economic development.

As we can see, Hong Kong excels in many respects. Of course, we should not be complacent. We must continue our efforts to enhance our competitiveness to reinforce further our position as an international financial centre and as Asia's world city.

(This is Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Frederick Ma's latest online column FSTB & You, published June 28.)