Hong Kong continues to attract expatriate professionals in greater numbers

Hong Kong brands itself as "Asia's World City" and the strong community of expatriates reinforces its cosmopolitan claim. Fifteen years after the city's return, the number of expats obtaining visas has grown rapidly.

The special administrative region is like a dreamland for many English-speaking entrepreneurs. Low taxes, efficient public transport and advanced logistical infrastructure make business convenient. Use of English remains a widespread legacy of British rule. The city is holding fast to its role as Asia's most important finance center. It sits at the doorstep of the Chinese mainland, home to many of the world's manufacturing industries and an increasingly affluent domestic consumer market.

Senior-level jobs with multinational companies are plentiful, as are teaching positions for native English speakers.

New lights shine in the eyes of expats looking for places to relocate, but increasingly, other Asian cities, from Shanghai to Singapore, compete with Hong Kong employers vying for the world's best and brightest hires.

There's the problem of Hong Kong's persistent air pollution, a shortage of international schools, the world's most expensive Grade-A office space, and cramped, exorbitantly priced residential flats. What would be ordinary middle-class accommodation in other cities is available only to families earning high incomes in Hong Kong. But for the time being, Hong Kong's benefits appear to outweigh its liabilities. Last year saw a record for the number of work visas granted to expat job seekers under the Immigration Department's General Employment Scheme.

The United Kingdom and United States continue to lead the charge of foreign workers. Work visas issued to UK citizens jumped 45 percent (to 3,907) while the tally for US applicants shot up 96 percent (to 4,290) between 2001 and 2011. Last year marked record highs for applicants of both nationalities, according to Immigration Department figures.

There have also been dramatic increases in the numbers of Indian and French workers heading to Hong Kong. Indian visa holders skyrocketed 251 percent (to 2,887) and French job seekers leapt 188 percent (to 1,298) between 2001 and 2011. Record numbers of visa holders also came from the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Canada last year.

During the decade, total work visas issued annually under the government's General Employment Scheme grew 65 percent from 18,520 to 30,557 last year. An Immigration Department spokesman said government visa records are unavailable dating back to 1997.

Working abroad is becoming increasingly important for professionals seeking career advancement, according to a new study by Hydrogen Group, a global specialist in recruitment. Hydrogen's report, Global Professionals on the Move, suggests that worldwide expat job relocations are growing, despite the global financial crisis. However, the positions are now more frequently found in cities less synonymous with expat posts before the financial downturn.

"People now need to go where the revenue is," says Dan Church, client services director at Hydrogen. "Five years ago this might have been New York, London and Hong Kong. Now it is also Shanghai, Houston, Vietnam, and so on."

Tarynn Hatton-Jones has worked in Hong Kong for seven years after stints in Thailand and Botswana. Originally from South Africa, Hatton-Jones says she fell in love with Hong Kong when she first arrived to take up an international banking post.

Three years after arriving, she made a career change, and became her own boss. She bought a majority share in an organic textile and hospitality business with offices in Wong Chuk Hang, a short walk from the Aberdeen Harbor.

"From a business perspective, Hong Kong makes it really easy," she says. "You can set up a business in six hours, at least registration. Also, there are a massive amount of resources and so many accountants who know the rules and are easy to work with, and the Immigration Department is really fantastic. They make it really easy."

Although Hong Kong is no longer the textiles hub it once was, Hatton-Jones says she would not want her companies located elsewhere. Hong Kong had emerged as one of the world's most important textile hubs in the mid-20th century. By the 1960s, it led all of Asia. Most local textile companies had relocated, with the rest of Hong Kong's heavy industry, to the mainland after the reform and opening-up in the 1970s.

Her business partners at her two companies - Burnt Oringe (specializing in organic bedding) and Hatton Jones (selling sustainable products for the hospitality industry) - have done business in Hong Kong for more than 20 years.

Today the companies import from the mainland to create custom-designed product lines for Hong Kong market and also re-export internationally. She says Hong Kong's international population provides strong demand for her organic textile products, while many locals, accustomed to high-quality linens, remain a relatively untapped market.

"It makes total sense for us to be here," Hatton-Jones says. "If you look at Asia, Hong Kong is the best place to be in terms of taxes ... People are well educated and hardworking. There is an abundance of expertise that you can obviously tap into, and we're also close to the Chinese mainland. The mainland is where all the factories are."

She also relishes the multiculturalism of the city, feeling truly integrated into the fabric of daily life. She's planning to learn Cantonese, while her daughter is studying Mandarin at school.

"Thailand is heavily expat, and you live a life in a bubble," she says, reflecting on her previous foreign job posts. "You have real life, and then you have the expat environment, where you're living in these big places and everyone has a driver. I don't think you can compare (expat life in Bangkok) at all with that of most expats in Hong Kong. Here, you're living within the culture."

stushadow@chinadailyhk.com