Page:HKFactSheet ComingtoHongKong 062015.pdf/3

 Telecommunications: As at January 2015, the fully digitalised telephone systems serve nearly 4.32 million telephone lines. The mobile telephone systems serve over 17.24 million subscribers (as of February 2015), a penetration rate of about 237.4 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, which is one of the highest in the world. With 12.5 million subscribers, the third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) mobile service continues to grow, enabling consumers to enjoy high-speed mobile multi-media services. Other than basic voice services, data services are becoming popular among consumers. As at February 2015, mobile data usage recorded 15 058 Terabytes (i.e. 15 057 920 Gigabytes), or an average of 1 196.9 Mbytes per 2.5G/3G/4G mobile user. This represents 1.34 times and 1.73 times the mobile data usage over the same period in 2014 and 2013 respectively. The local broadband Internet service market has nearly 2.27 million subscribers as at January 2015. The household broadband penetration rate has reached almost 83 per cent. Hong Kong has also developed into a leading wireless city with 31 879 hotspots (as of March 2015) covering 7 511 locations which enable the public to access the Internet via Wi-Fi.

Banks: Hong Kong is an international banking centre. As at April 2015, there were 157 licensed banks, 23 restricted licence banks and 21 deposit-taking companies in Hong Kong. Together they operated a comprehensive network of 1 376 local branches. There were also 64 representative offices of banks incorporated outside Hong Kong. These institutions come from 36 countries and include 71 out of the world's largest 100 banks.

Exchange Rate: Since October 1983, Hong Kong has been adopting the linked exchange rate system under which the Hong Kong dollar is linked to the US dollar at the fixed rate of HK$7.80 to US$1.

Taxation: Under the territorial source concept of taxation, only income arising in or derived from Hong Kong is chargeable to tax. Profits from any trade, business or profession carried on in Hong Kong are chargeable to profits tax. For the year of assessment 2013/14, the profits tax rate for corporations is 16.5 per cent and that for other businesses is 15 per cent. Income from employment is charged with salaries tax which is calculated at progressive rates after deducting various deductions and allowances. Salaries tax is however limited to the standard rate of 15 per cent on the net income before deduction of allowances. Property tax is charged on the owner of any properties in Hong Kong at the standard rate of 15 per cent on the annual rent receivable less rates and a statutory deduction of 20 per cent for repairs and outgoings.

Mass Media: Hong Kong has one of the highest newspaper readerships in Asia. It is also one of the world's largest centres for Chinese-language publications. There were a total of 758 publications registered as at April 2015, 55 of which were newspapers including 28 Chinese-language dailies and 12 English dailies. There were 703 periodicals covering a wide variety of subjects from public affairs/politics to technical matters and entertainment.

Hong Kong's television viewers can access to over 400 domestic and non-domestic television programme service channels broadcast by local licensees. These include 15 free-to-air channels currently provided by two domestic free television programme service licensees, about 400 pay TV channels provided by three domestic pay television programme service licensees, and over 40 non-domestic television programme service channels. Three radio stations in Hong Kong have 13 analogue channels in Chinese and English and broadcast more than 2 000 hours of programmes a week. Four operators have launched digital audio broadcasting (DAB) services, which will comprise a total of 18 channels. As of early 2015, 17 channels have been launched.