Tag Archives: China

     The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office (ICHO) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) presents the brand new Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Mobile Centre “Mobile ICH” starting from June. With more technological and interactive elements for the showcase of ICH items, the ICH Mobile Centre will travel among districts and schools in Hong Kong in the coming two years. Through exhibitions, educational activities and public programmes on the Mobile Centre, the public and students can enjoy fun games while enhancing their knowledge of the rich content of Hong Kong’s ICH in an engaging way.
      
     Focusing on festive events, the Mobile ICH covers themes such as languages, music, performing arts, knowledge and practices concerning nature, festive events, customs and craftsmanship. It highlights the introduction of 13 of Hong Kong’s ICH items, namely traditional Chinese almanac, lantern lighting ritual, flower-lantern paper crafting technique, lantern band embroidery technique, unicorn dance, Spring and Autumn ancestral worship of clans, Hong Kong cheongsam making technique, Wai Tau dialect, “Sek Pun” (basin feast), Yu Lan Festival of the Hong Kong Chiu Chow community, Chiu Chow food making technique, engor and Chiu Chow music.
      
     Apart from exhibits and videos related to ICH, the ICH Mobile Centre features an interactive “Hong Kong ICH Festival Map”, leading the public to explore the festivals across all 18 districts and cultural traditions, and add the events to their mobile phone calendars. Through interactive devices “Tung Shing (the book of everything) Calendar” and “ICH 123”, the public can browse local festivals to learn details of related ICH items and the different ways of safeguarding and passing on ICH. The public can also make and keep their own Spring Ox Picture Souvenir Card by participating in the stamping activity on the ICH Mobile Centre.
      
     The ICH Mobile Centre project is presented by the ICHO of the LCSD, organised by the Hong Kong Resource Centre for Heritage, and funded by the ICH Funding Scheme. For information and schedule of the ICH Mobile Centre, please visit the website www.icho.hk/en/web/icho/mobile_ich_public_programme_2025.html. Applications for the ICH Mobile Centre project will be open to schools. Details will be announced on the website of the ICHO.

                

     The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, will depart for Shanghai tomorrow (June 17) afternoon. During his visit, he will attend the opening ceremony and plenary session of the 2025 Lujiazui Forum. He will also witness the signing of the Action Plan for Collaborative Development of Shanghai and Hong Kong International Financial Centres. Mr Chan will also attend an international exchange dinner organised by the China Finance 40 Forum. While in Shanghai, he will meet with officials of the relevant central ministries and Shanghai, as well as economic and financial leaders from various places, to discuss the strengthening of co-operation and exchanges.
      
     The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, will participate in the visit.
      
     Mr Chan will return to Hong Kong in the afternoon of June 18. During his absence, the Deputy Financial Secretary, Mr Michael Wong, will act as Financial Secretary. During Mr Hui’s absence, the Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Joseph Chan, will be the Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury. read more

     The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) published today (June 16) the June 2025 issue of the "Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics" (HKMDS).        Apart from providing up-to-date statistics… read more

     The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (June 16) the preliminary statistics on Hong Kong’s Gross National Income (GNI) and related figures for the first quarter of 2025.
 
     Hong Kong’s GNI, which denotes the total income earned by Hong Kong residents from engaging in various economic activities, increased by 6.2% in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier to $879.4 billion at current market prices. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), estimated at $799.7 billion at current market prices in the same quarter, recorded a 4.3% increase over a year earlier. The value of GNI was larger than GDP by $79.7 billion in the first quarter of 2025, which was equivalent to 10.0% of GDP in that quarter, mainly attributable to a net inflow of investment income.
 
     After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, Hong Kong’s GNI increased by 4.0% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier. The corresponding GDP in the same quarter increased by 3.1% in real terms.
 
     Hong Kong’s total inflow of primary income, which mainly comprises investment income, estimated at $521.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025 and equivalent to 65.2% of GDP in that quarter, recorded an increase of 5.3% over a year earlier.  Meanwhile, total primary income outflow, estimated at $441.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025 and equivalent to 55.2% of GDP in that quarter, also increased by 1.8% over a year earlier.
 
     As for the major components of investment income inflow, direct investment income (DII) increased by 3.4% over a year earlier, mainly due to the increase in earnings of some prominent local enterprises from their direct investment abroad.  Portfolio investment income (PII) recorded a significant increase of 36.7% over a year earlier, mainly attributable to the increase in dividend income received by resident investors from their holdings of non-resident equity securities and the increase in interest income received by resident investors from their holdings of non-resident debt securities.
 
     Regarding the major components of investment income outflow, DII increased by 4.2% over a year earlier, mainly due to the increase in earnings of some prominent multinational enterprises from their direct investment in Hong Kong. PII increased significantly by 14.0%, mainly attributable to the increase in interest payout to non-resident investors from their holdings of resident debt securities.
 
     Analysed by country/territory, the mainland of China continued to be the largest source of Hong Kong’s total primary income inflow in the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 42.4%. This was followed by the British Virgin Islands (BVI), with a share of 16.7%. Regarding total primary income outflow, the mainland of China and the BVI remained the most important destinations in the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 29.9% and 21.3% respectively.
 
Further Information
 
     GDP and GNI are closely related indicators for measuring economic performance. GDP is a measure of the total value of production of all resident producing units of an economy. GNI denotes the total income earned by residents of an economy from engaging in various economic activities, irrespective of whether the economic activities are carried out within the economic territory of the economy or outside.
 
     Figures of GNI and primary income flows analysed by income component from the second quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2025 are presented in Table A, while selected major country/territory breakdowns of primary income inflow and outflow for the same quarters are presented in Tables B(1) and B(2) respectively.
 
     Statistics on GDP and GNI from 2023 onwards and primary income flows from 2024 onwards are subject to revision when more data are incorporated.
 
     More detailed statistics are given in the report “Gross National Income and External Primary Income Flows, First Quarter 2025”. Users can browse and download this publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1040005&scode=250).
 
     For enquiries about GNI and related statistics, please contact the Balance of Payments Branch (2) of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7054 or email: gni@censtatd.gov.hk). read more

     Further to the external merchandise trade statistics in value terms for April 2025 released earlier on, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (June 16) the volume and price statistics of external merchandise trade for that month.
 
     In April 2025, the volume of Hong Kong’s total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 12.3% and 13.4% respectively over April 2024.
 
     Comparing the first four months of 2025 with the same period in 2024, the volume of Hong Kong’s total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 9.6% and 8.9% respectively.
 
     Comparing the three-month period ending April 2025 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the volume of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 10.4% and 10.3% respectively.
 
     Changes in volume of external merchandise trade are derived from changes in external merchandise trade value with the effect of price changes discounted.
 
     Comparing April 2025 with April 2024, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods increased by 2.2% and 2.1% respectively.
 
     As regards price changes in the first four months of 2025 over the same period in 2024, the prices of total exports of goods and imports of goods both increased by 2.0%.
 
     Price changes in external merchandise trade are reflected by changes in unit value indices of external merchandise trade, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, specific price data.
 
     The terms of trade index is derived from the ratio of price index of total exports of goods to that of imports of goods. Compared with the same periods in 2024, the index increased by 0.1% in April 2025, whereas it remained virtually unchanged in the first four months of 2025.
 
     Changes in the unit value and volume of total exports of goods by main destination are shown in Table 1.
 
     Comparing April 2025 with April 2024, increases were recorded for the total export volume to all main destinations: Vietnam (45.3%), India (23.2%), the mainland of China (the Mainland) (20.2%), Taiwan (18.2%) and the USA (0.3%).
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the total export prices to Taiwan (4.8%), the Mainland (2.3%), Vietnam (2.0%) and the USA (0.9%) increased. On the other hand, the total export prices to India decreased by 1.2%.
 
     Changes in the unit value and volume of imports of goods by main supplier are shown in Table 2.
 
     Comparing April 2025 with April 2024, increases were recorded for the import volume from Vietnam (93.6%), Taiwan (41.8%), the Mainland (14.5%) and Singapore (5.0%). On the other hand, the import volume from Korea decreased by 25.8%.
 
     Over the same period of comparison, the import prices from all main suppliers increased: Korea (5.3%), Taiwan (5.2%), Singapore (2.4%), Vietnam (0.7%) and the Mainland (0.6%).
 
Further information
 
     Details of the above statistics are published in the April 2025 issue of “Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Index Numbers”. Users can browse and download the report at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1020006&scode=230).
 
     Enquiries on merchandise trade indices may be directed to the Trade Analysis Section of the C&SD (Tel: 2582 4918). read more