The city prides itself on an entrepreneurial reputation that saw the likes of Li Ka-shing leap from selling plastic flowers to becoming Asia's richest man. That drive may be waning as Hong Kong loses its position as the only gateway to China.
International businesses are moving to the mainland to tap into its 1.3 billion-strong consumer market and its 7 percent economic growth rate.
Cushman & Wakefield, the second-largest US commercial real estate broker, moved its Asian headquarters to Shanghai from Hong Kong last month.
Oracle said Hong Kong's weak economy caused it to cancel plans to lease space in the city's CyberPort development. The world's largest database-software maker plans to expand in Beijing instead, the South China Morning Post reported last month.
At last month's Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair, vendors complained that many of the 25,000 buyers who showed up on the first day didn't return, going instead to a rival fair in China.
"People just came and looked and then went into China," said Bernadette Lo of U-Win Industrial Development, which makes plastic picture frames for Russian and South American customers. "Business hasn't been good."
Hong Kong's Trade Development Council, which organized the event, had a different take: It bought a half-page newspaper advertisement during the fair saying business was "booming."
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