Janez Drnovšek at the Conference of Boao Forum for Asia 2006 – Meeting with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong

Boao, PR China, 04/21/2006 | press release

Dr Janez Drnovšek, president of the Republic of Slovenia, will attend the fifth Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia 2006 (BFA) in China tomorrow. The main conference topic will be “New Opportunities of Asia: Driving Growth to the Next Level".

The day before the official opening of the conference, the president of the Republic of Slovenia met with the chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. Drnovšek said that Slovenia has been following the development of Hong Kong with great interest, particularly since 1997, when it was returned to China. He also emphasized that Slovenia’s membership of the European Union further increases opportunities for business cooperation with Hong Kong.

Tsang presented economic and political conditions in Hong Kong. He stressed that Hong Kong is a major investor in China, particularly in Beijing, Shang and Tianjin. Services account for 90 percent of its economy and production for 5 percent of its economy. In order to reduce costs, production activities are moving to neighbouring Chinese provinces, which have around 11 million people. Tsang expressed his interest in investment in Slovenia and also in cooperation with Slovenian companies. Drnovšek concluded that the opportunities offered by Hong Kong to small and medium Slovenian enterprises are indeed important and, at the same time, he highlighted the Port of Koper as a possible point of entry to Central Europe.

Chief Executive Tsang invited a Slovenian business and government delegation to visit Hong Kong and at the same time expressed interest in having Hong Kong business representatives visit Slovenia because of its central position in Europe.