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Showing posts with label fortune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fortune. Show all posts

Sail into Hong Kong with ease helped by a reliable worldwide courier

Well-known as one of the most densely populated parts of the world, the island of Hong Kong is, as a result, a prime target for many businesses using international parcel delivery. From the 1840s until 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony. As a result, British culture still exerts a strong influence over the island, with many people having links with family or friends of British origin. Hence, Hong Kong is often described as the place where east meets west, and this principle still applies to all aspects of the running of the country, except for defence and international relations, where China has assumed a controlling role.

Hong Kong is a major global financial centre, and reflecting this, Hong Kong city has one of the highest concentrations of skyscrapers in the world. Much of this prosperity can be attributed to the fact that the country has been pinpointed as having the world's freest economy. It reaped the benefits of this loose control over four decades, until its dramatic rise in fortunes was halted by the Asian financial crisis of 1998. Nonetheless, the country's trade remains governed by a policy of ‘positive non-interventionism', this having only been tempered by the introduction of a minimum wage, compulsory pension, anti-discrimination laws, and guarantees on financing for exporters.

Hong Kong has to import most of its food and raw materials, and at the same time it is the world's largest re-export centre. This means that it distributes a wide range of products made elsewhere – principally in mainland China – to the rest of the world. As of 2009, 7.03million people lived on Hong Kong's 16,576 square miles of land, and about 45,000 Chinese emigrants annually are keeping this figure rising steadily. Some years after the UK ceded control of Hong Kong to China, many of the territory's signs are still bilingual – a sign of the sway which Britain still holds over the island.

With few natural resources, Hong Kong is very dependent on its imports, which besides raw materials also include substantial amounts of consumer goods and food. Trade with Hong Kong is not only eased by its light-touch regulatory regime, but also by the number of international delivery operators which serve it. It means that anyone looking to export goods to Hong Kong can take advantage of this stiff competition to get very competitive delivery rates. Going online is the easiest way to find the best quality Hong Kong parcel delivery services. Prices and service levels offered by many companies specialising in worldwide delivery can be easily compared.

Billionaires only in Forbes Asia Hong Kong rich list 2011

According to the latest Hong Kong rich list published by Forbes Asia, forty of Hong Kong's wealthiest people are US dollar billionaires. In fact, the top forty super rich in Hong Kong are reported to have a combined net worth of US$167 billion. Although this total has increased by US$28 billion since 2009, it still remains below the 2008 figure of US$178 billion.

Senior editor at Forbes, Russell Flannery, commented; "There is no doubt that most of Hong Kong's wealthiest are riding the China wave.  Much has changed in China in the past few decades, but Hong Kong's role as an important conduit between foreign businesses and mainland [China's] economy hasn't, and that's very apparent in this year's Hong Kong list."

Even though Hong Kong has a total population of just over seven million, whilst mainland China can count well over one billion, the top forty richest in Hong Kong are worth US$26 billion more than their counterparts in mainland China. The wealthiest man in Hong Kong is eighty two year old Li Ka-Shing, whose total wealth is estimated at US$24 billion.  Li Ka-Shing has held the number one spot in Forbes's Asia rich list since 2008, when the list was first published.

In second place are the Kwok family, with a total fortune of US$20 billion.  The husband and wife team saw their net worth rise sharply in 2010 - mainly due to the success of their real estate development company, Sun Hung Kai Properties. Lee Shau Kee, who ranked second wealthiest in Hong Kong last year, slipped to third position with a net worth of US$19.5 billion.  

Looking at the Forbes Asia rich list for Hong Kong, it is apparent that the majority of Hong Kong's business tycoons have made their wealth from real estate.  During 2010, property developers in Hong Kong suffered from tax increases on property transactions, increases in office rents helped those who own commercial properties. New comers to the 2011 Forbes Asia rich in Hong Kong list were; William E. Connor II at number twenty two with US$2 billion, Choy Kam Lok with US$1.73 billion and Albert Yeung with US$1.3 billion in assets.