Hong Kong Industryadministrative region, China Chinese (Pinyin) Xianggang or (Wade-Giles) Hsiang-Kang

The rapid development of manufacturing in the 1950s was made possible by immigrant Chinese industrialists, mainly from Shanghai, who brought with them technology and capital. Foreign investments soon began to flow in to tap the huge supply of cheap labour and relatively cheap raw materials available in the surrounding region. Most of the industry has been confined to the urban areas, especially in the densely populated districts of Kowloon. With the development of industrial and other new towns, manufacturing began to disperse into Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, and others. In 1977 the Hong Kong Industrial Estates Corporation was established to develop and manage industrial estates that would accommodate high-technology industries, first on reclaimed land in Tai Po and later in Yuen Long.

Manufacturing, once the most important sector of the Hong Kong economy, has been overshadowed by the vast service sector; it now constitutes less than one-tenth of the gross domestic product and employs about one-tenth of the labour force. Textile and clothing production is the leading manufacturing activity and contributes about one-third of the value of domestic exports. The electronics industry is the second largest export earner. There are some heavy industries such as shipbuilding and repair and aircraft engineering. Steel rolling, production of machine parts and plastics, and cement manufacturing serve local needs. The tourist industry, which is highly promoted by the government and well catered to by the huge service sector, is another significant part of the economy. The number of tourists exceeded 10 million per year in the mid-1990s.