Hong Kong an easy place to do business

Do you think Hong Kong is still an ideal place to do business?

Absolutely! I set up my company in Japan in 1965. However, once I came to Hong Kong in 1970 and found it was so much easier to do business here, with the very efficient banking, financial and legal system, I moved my company’s headquarters here. I have since opened offices in cities all over the world and I have never found one as good as Hong Kong. Very little has changed since the handover in 1997. The freedoms to operate a business, the fair tax rates, the clean government, the world’s best infrastructure and transport system and the very honest and fair legal system make Hong Kong the best place to do business of any city or country in which Crown operates.

The Occupy Central movement was very peaceful and it showed Hong Kong has freedom of speech for people to express their own views. It should have ended earlier, though. It dragged on for too long and disrupted people’s daily lives, which was not good. Still, I do not think it will affect business people’s confidence in Hong Kong.

The Mong Kok riot during the Lunar New Year, however, was not acceptable as it involved violence.

How is your company coping with the ­economic downturn in Hong Kong and the ­mainland?

Our business hasn’t been badly affected by the downturn in China. Because much of our business is related to moving people it seems to be quite recession-proof. Also, we are a global company and China is not a huge part of our business, so we have felt little effect of the slow down there. I would add that, in my opinion, China needed to slow its growth and also curb the corruption that was hurting the country so I think the steps taken by the government there were good in the long run.

What do you think the government should do to help your business to do better?