HONG KONG DIRECT INVESTMENT IN CHINA'S MAINLAND:A SPATIAL STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LOCATIONAL BEHAVIOUR OF INVESTORS

Key words: 
• investment location /
• spatial behaviour of firms /
• China /
• Hong Kong

Abstract: The study shows that the regional differentiation of Hong Kong direct investement(HKDI)in China was enlarged in the 1980s and has has reducing since 1991.The concentration of HKDI in the southern China and the coast has has replace by the trend of moving northwards and iulandwards after 1989.But in terms of tnanofacturing sectors this trend has not clearly appeared until now.Those changing Patterns are dearly related to the behaviour of Hong Kong industrial investors.The survey results suggest that "enjoying lower production cost" is the most important motive for thed investment in China.In consequece, "close to Hong Kong", "cheqper labour" and "favourable policy" are major factors for determining the investment locations.This behaviour, together with the lack of comparison study in location selection among most investors, explains that Guangdong absorbed most Hong Kong investment in the 1980s.As the production costs have been increasing in Guangdong, are companies have started to invest in non-Guangdong locations since the end of the 1980s.From the mental map of Hong Kong investors, however, only some of the non-Guangdong locations are practically attractive.