Honk Kong Kowloon

Kowloon in Hong Kong. The old and new meet in Hong Kong.

In modern day Hong Kong, Kowloon refers to the urban area made up of Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon, bordered by the Lei Yue Mun strait in the east, Mei Foo Sun Chuen and Stonecutter's Island in the west, Tate's Cairn and Lion Rock in the north, and Victoria Harbour in the south.

Population (2000): 2,071,000. Population density: 44,000 people/km² or 112,000 people/mi². The peninsula's area is approximately 47 km² or 18.1 mi².

Together with Hong Kong Island, it contains 47% of Hong Kong's total population.

The more accurate transcription Kau Lung or Kau-lung was often used in derived place names before World War II, for example Kau-lung Bay instead of Kowloon Bay.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the marketplace of choice for Asia's technology sector.

Supported by its advanced technology infrastructure, sophisticated business environement and tech-savy professionals, Hong Kong companies have the experience and networks to connect ideas, people and capital across the region and the world.

I will be writing more about this later. The China theme will have an important role for Finnish SMEs in the years to come.

The China Opportunity

I attended a Seminar in Helsinki "China: the opportunity comes to town". The event at the Scandic Hotel in Helsinki did draw several hundred participants. For myself, the seminar put Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao into a more understandable context. There was also an opportunity to meet with a lot of people from those areas.

In a remarkably short period of time, economic globalisation has changed the world economic order bringing new opportunities and new challenges. In this new economic order, Europe cannot compete unless it becomes more inventive, reacts better to consumer needs and preferences and innovates more.

Finland is a big country with a sparse population. Hong Kong has about the same number of inhabitants but Finns are living on an area that is 300 times larger. Our SMEs have to get out to the international markets at an early stage while the home market can't provide a living and a platform for success for specialized companies with niche products.

Fuelled by a surging economy, China's appetite for technology products and solutions has never been stronger, especially popular are innovations that improve energy, environmental and manufacturing efficiency. Equally, China-developed technologies are attracting interest across international markets.

The two-way flow f innovation, investment and expertise has created a unique and growing technology market right in close vicinity of Hong Kong.