Wooing & Growing

Through Hong Kong's twisting, crowded streets drove Gina Lollobrigida, riding alternately in a gold-painted Fiat and a jinrikisha, and extolling at every stop the virtues of Italian products. Not to be outdone, the French dispatched Starlet Mylene Demongeot on a Hong Kong tour to draw attention to a display of French products. The tiny (398 sq. mi.) crown colony is used to being wooed. It is one of the busiest and most prosperous spots in the Orient, important both to neighboring Red China and to foreign companies that want to do business in the Far East. In his annual report to the legislature, Governor Sir Robert Black reported that Hong Kong's economy is growing at the rate of 10% to 15% a year. "It is," said he, "an astonishing picture."

Hong Kong draws business with a burgeoning economy, now in its 16th year of boom, strategic location, low taxes, good transportation, accent on free enterprise and a reputation as the Switzerland of the Far East. The col ony spent nearly $100 million last year for new factories and apartment and office buildings, attracted a growing wave of tourists who left behind $100 million. Its exports, chiefly fabrics, clothing and toys, rose 15% to $807 million; 21% of them go to the U.S., its chief customer.

Attracted by this progress, foreign companies are steadily setting up branches in Hong Kong. Seattle's Bank of Commerce last week became the fifth U.S. bank to open an office in the colony; British and overseas Chinese are funneling in funds for investing in real estate and local businesses. Even Red China is profiting by Hong Kong's prosperity: since it sells more than 20 times as much to the colony as it buys, it earns much of its foreign exchange through the capitalist outpost at its doorstep.

Not content with being wooed, Hong Kong is doing some wooing of its own. Last week a 56-man trade delegation was in Singapore trying to sell Hong Kong goods, and other delegations left for Europe and the U.S. The colony's aggressive salesmen hope to bring home the full order books needed to sustain Hong Kong's remarkable growth.

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