HONG KONG: Latest government figures have confirmed the growing importance of the service sector to Hong Kong, even as those services are exported overseas, with transportation and trading services leading the way.

The Census and Statistics Department said the value of total exports of services rose by 8.6 percent in 2008 over 2007 to HK$717.2 billion. Total imports of services grew by 10.3 percent over the same period to HK$366.5 billion.

The result is an invisible trade surplus at HK$350.8 billion in 2008, an increase over the HK$328.5 billion surplus reported in the previous year.

Transportation services and trade-related services were the two largest sectors in exports of services, accounting for 31.4 percent and 30.1 percent respectively of the value of total exports of services.

They were followed by travel services (16.6 percent), and financial services (12.8 percent).

"It is worth noting that exports of financial services suffered a decline in 2008, indicative of the impact from the evolving global financial crisis that began with the subprime mortgage crisis in the US in mid-2007," said a government spokesman.

As for imports of services, travel services accounted for 34.2 percent, followed by transportation services (33.6 percent), trade-related services (7.3 percent), and financial services (6.7 percent).

Geographically, the mainland and the US were Hong Kong's two major destinations for exports of services, accounting for 25.0 percent and 21.4 percent respectively. Next came the United Kingdom (7.6 percent), Japan (6.5 percent) and Taiwan (5.2 percent).

"The mainland remained the largest destination for Hong Kong's exports of services in 2008, accounting for around one-quarter of the total," said the government spokesman.

The mainland was also the major source for imports of services, accounting for 25.6 percent.

"The continuing economic and financial integration between Hong Kong and the mainland, with the strong foundation laid by the CEPA and other initiatives, should provide a lot of business opportunities for Hong Kong companies and professionals. The development was particularly important to Hong Kong as the mainland was the first among the major economies worldwide to emerge from the global recession," he said.

(HK Edition 02/10/2010 page2)