Hong Kong Expat
Hong Kong's expatriate community is as large and diverse as the city itself. It truly is a great place to live and work. Why not join our expat website and take part in an ever growing Hong Kong guide. It's a great opportunity to share your experiences and information with other expats. Those that have a keen interest in both Hong Kong and the region as a whole will find lots of friends here.
Furthermore, our Hong Kong Expat Forum enables you to participate in a wide range of discussions. It's fun, friendly and a chance to make new friends in the area. Better still, it's completely free to register and use. We're confident you'll enjoy our community and once you start posting, you'll be hooked.
Click on any of the links to be taken to individual thread or the main page of the expatriate portal itself.
Living and Working in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has long been a favourite outpost for Western expatriates. As an economic crossroads, it has long attracted investors and high flyers. However, it's had it's share of bad luck in more recent years. Some might argue it bad luck started with the announcement that the British were to hand the colony back to China but in reality, things really went wrong just a short time after the handover with the 1997 Asian economic crisis and the 2003 SARS virus fiasco.
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Hong Kong's economy took a major hit with SARS, resulting in hotel occupancy in single figures in some cases, redundancies accross all sectors, noteably retail, restaurants and tourism. However, Hong Kong went on to demonstrate it's resiliance, with an 'I Love Hong Kong' campaign. Buoyed by a weak US Dollar and a remarkeable recovery in tourism, the Hong Kong economy is growing strong again.
What does this mean for the Hong Kong expat? Well, recruitment organisations are predicting a growth in demand for staff and around half of surveyed companies say they expect to be hiring new staff or expanding their business. The plain and simple fact remains that Hong Kong's superb communications network, good strategic geographical location, well developed infrastructure, low taxation compared to it's competitors, stable currency and free port status leave the territory in a very strong position to attract investment. Furthermore, the experienced expat is often what hiring organisations are likely to favour when compared to a fresh graduate candidate, that is to say, they favour upgrading staff rather than increasing staff numbers.
Don't be fooled though. Hong Kong is still a very competitive market for job seekers with employers still excersising caution while licking their wounds from recent economic woes.
Hong Kong is increasingly doing business with the Chinese mainland, therefore the expat with good language skills in both Cantonese and Mandarin, are going to have a huge advantage and one that must not be underestimated (See also: Cantonese or Mandarin).
Need advice? Got a question? Go to our Hong Kong Forum