HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government recently published a comprehensive report on the city's business environment, coinciding with the announcement of the city's advance estimates on economic performance in the second quarter of 2025.

The analysis of the "Report on Hong Kong's Business Environment: Unique Strengths under 'one country, two systems,'" together with positive economic data, accurately reflects Hong Kong's resilient business-friendly environment with strong appeal for companies and talent from around the world, analysts say.

Advance estimates from the Census and Statistics Department of the HKSAR government showed that Hong Kong's real gross domestic product rose by 3.1 percent year on year in the second quarter. This 10th consecutive quarter of economic expansion was supported by strong export performance and improved domestic demand -- total exports of goods recorded an increase of 11.5 percent over a year earlier, while private consumption expenditure increased by 1.9 percent.

This solid, broad-based performance could be vividly seen in the high number of visitors to the city, including tourists and business visitors drawn by an array of events across town, ranging from trade fairs to cultural festivals and mega sports events.

One such event was the first Hong Kong Football Festival at the new Kai Tak Sports Park, which saw close to 100,000 football fans pack the Kai Tak Stadium over two match days featuring games between Liverpool and AC Milan, followed by Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur. The crowd included the one-millionth spectator at the Kai Tak Stadium since it opened just five months ago.

Hong Kong welcomed about 24 million visitors in the first half of 2025, up 12 percent year on year. Visitor arrivals from the Chinese mainland saw a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, while those from the rest of the world increased 17 percent over the same period last year.

The economic statistics fully endorse the analysis in the HKSAR government's 102-page report. Under the "one country, two systems," Hong Kong is known for its robust legal and financial systems, simple and low tax regime, strategic location at the heart of Asia, advanced infrastructure, pool of top-notch talent, and high-quality professional services.

With its close connectivity to leading global business centers, Hong Kong offers a dynamic, free and open, convenient and safe place for doing business, making it a preferred destination for corporate investment.

Beyond tourism services, developments in other sectors have been picking up in recent years, further boosting confidence in the local economy, according to the report.

Despite continued global uncertainties, the sentiment about Hong Kong's stock market has steadily improved. In the first half of 2025, the Hang Seng Index has risen by more than 4,000 points, registering an increase of about 20 percent.

The amount of IPO fundraising reached over 13.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of the year, placing Hong Kong in a leading position among major global exchanges. Vibrant IPO activities continued in July with nine IPOs raising more than 2.3 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, overall investment expenditure increased further alongside the economic expansion.

The HKSAR government's Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises has successfully attracted 84 strategic enterprises to set up or expand their operations in Hong Kong. It is expected that they will invest a total of around 6.4 billion dollars and create more than 20,000 jobs in Hong Kong in the coming few years.

Also, since January 2023, Invest Hong Kong has assisted more than 1,300 overseas and Chinese mainland companies to set up or expand their business in Hong Kong, bringing in foreign direct investment of more than 20.3 billion dollars.

Initiatives to attract top talent and professionals from around the world are also paying dividends. Various talent attraction schemes have received nearly 500,000 applications, with nearly 330,000 of them approved, and almost 220,000 talents have already arrived in Hong Kong.

Amid lingering uncertainties in the external environment, expectations run high on the HKSAR government to continue striving to promote economic growth on various fronts and make the most of the city's longstanding and unique "one country, two systems" advantages to maintain the city's reputation as a resilient, open, free, and competitive economy.