The Consulate General of Japan in Hong Kong, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Hong Kong Office, and the Hong Kong Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry conducted a survey on Hong Kong's business environment in the second half of 2021 in early January.
The survey results listed five key points.
First, the DI value* in the second half of 2021 was 19.1 points, down 4.3 points from Q2 in 2021.
The expected DI value in the first half of 2022 is 3.7, down 15.4 percentage points from the DI in the second half of 2021.
*Editor's Note: The DI value refers to the Diffusion index, which is a forecasting method for judging whether the economic outlook is prosperous or not based on the rise and fall of a number of economic indicators.
Second, 68.1% of the interviewed Japanese companies said that the COVID-19 epidemic is the biggest factor affecting their business performance; 14.3% of the interviewed companies said it was "China's economic trend"; 11.6% of the respondents answered "other" factors, such as semiconductors Out of stock, supply chain disruption, etc.
Third, 8.8% of the surveyed companies expressed "very concern" about the "Hong Kong National Security Law", 42.2% of the surveyed companies said "concerned"; 66.9% of the surveyed companies said "no impact", 20.2% said "currently I don’t know,” and 12.5% said that the National Security Law had a negative impact.
Fourth, 75.3% of respondents said the national security law had "no significant impact" on their Hong Kong office.
In addition, 56.6% of respondents said travel restrictions "have little impact" in their Hong Kong office.
Fifth, about 64% of the respondents mentioned that "restricted business activities due to travel restrictions between Hong Kong and China, and between Hong Kong and Japan" are the most serious business problems.
Sixth, 36.6% of the respondents said that the Japanese headquarters held a pessimistic attitude towards Hong Kong.
Regarding the impact on the head office business, 42.9% responded that they were ordered or urged to consider reducing the number of people in the Hong Kong office.
The investigation team visited 232 Japanese-funded enterprises from January 3 to January 7.
Among companies that were pessimistic about the situation in Hong Kong, 42.9% said their headquarters had ordered or urged them to consider downsizing their offices or operations in Hong Kong.
69.8% of the companies surveyed said that compared with January 2021, the business environment in Hong Kong in January 2022 has not changed, while 21.0% of the companies said that the business environment has "seriously deteriorated" or "deteriorated".
Hong Kong: The picture shows an interior view of a shopping mall in Hong Kong on March 26, 2020.
(Getty)
68.1% of the companies surveyed said that the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic is the main reason for the deterioration of their business in the second half of 2021.
14.3% of companies pointed to the economic performance of mainland China as the main reason.
The investigation team also interviewed Japanese-funded enterprises' views on the "Hong Kong National Security Law".
51% of the companies surveyed said they were "very concerned" or "concerned" about the "Hong Kong National Security Law".
The survey also asked about the impact of the "Hong Kong National Security Law" on business. 66.9% of the respondents said there was no impact, 12.5% said it had a negative impact, and 20.2% said they didn't know.
75.3% of the companies surveyed indicated that there was no significant impact on the Hong Kong office.
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