BUSINESS SETTLED IN HONG KONG
Enterprises from the mainland tell their stories of development in the special administrative region By Qi Yibin
many world-renowned enterprises have set up their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. CMG has been directly involved in global competition on this platform. It has made great progress through making full use of talent, capital and systems in Hong Kong and effectively enhanced economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland.
Now, CMG focuses on three major industries—integrated transportation, integrated finance as well as urban and industrial park development. By the end of 2016, it had total assets of 6.81 trillion yuan ($1 trillion), ranking first among centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In 2016, its total profit was 111.2 billion yuan ($16.35 billion), ranking second.
Hong Kong is the birthplace of another key SOE—China Resources Group (CR). CR was founded in 1938 and since then it has witnessed the construction and development process of Hong Kong. Over the past decades it has grown from a small trading agency to one of the top 500 companies in the world.
Advanced financial services in Hong Kong have enhanced CR’s financing capacity and promoted the growth of its business. Fu Yuning, Chairman of CR, said that since Hong Kong’s return, seven subsidiary companies of CR have been listed in Hong Kong and raised more than HK$140 billion ($17.9 billion) from the capital market.
Mainland-invested companies have become an indispensable driving force behind the economic development of Hong Kong.
For instance, in 2002, the employment situation for college students in Hong Kong was not good due to the economic downturn in the city. CR, besides employing college graduates, sponsored some outstanding students from Hong Kong to go to Peking University and Tsinghua University on the mainland for further studies.
In 2007, CR set up a scholarship at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, sponsoring students from underdeveloped areas on the mainland to