P.M. BRIEFING : Hong Kong Firms Ponder Moves
More than half Hong Kong’s multinational corporations are considering shifting their regional headquarters from the troubled British colony and Singapore heads the list of alternatives, a survey said today.
About 62% of the 50 firms polled by Business International said they will decide whether to relocate within two or three years. More than 32% said chronic staff shortages and turnovers are major operating problems and will affect their decision.
Hong Kong reverts to China in 1997, at the expiration of Britain’s 99-year lease on the prosperous colony.
Beijing’s military crackdown on mainland pro-democracy demonstrators in June stoked an already burgeoning confidence crisis among Hong Kong’s 5.8 million residents.
About 1,000 people--mostly middle-class professionals--leave Hong Kong each week, and companies have had to offer higher salaries and better benefits to attract the dwindling supply of skilled workers.
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