The rise in the jewellery business is set to treble India’s trade with Hong Kong to $50 billion by 2020, Benjamin Chau, deputy executive director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), has said.
Chau is on a tour to India to promote Asia’s largest trade exhibition, the HKTDC international jewellery show, scheduled to be held on March 5-9 in Hong Kong. “With closer collaboration between the two countries and our concerted effort, we are sure of a stronger bilateral trade relationship and development of more business opportunities. HKTDC will continue to assist in bolstering bilateral trade relations between the two countries,” said Chau.
Precious metals and stones account for about half of India’s imports from Hong Kong, while finished jewellery accounts for about half of the exports to Hong Kong. For Indian jewellery manufacturers and exporters, Hong Kong offers various incentives, including easy access to China, a rapidly growing diamond jewellery market.
India has become Hong Kong’s largest export market. In the first nine months of this year, total trade between the two regions stood at $16.9 billion, a 6.9 per cent rise compared to the corresponding period last year.
Hong Kong’s total exports to India stood at $8 billion. Indian exports to Hong Kong primarily include pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, electrical machinery, leather, cotton, organic chemicals, etc, while imports from Hong Kong include pearls, precious and semi precious stones, manufactured articles, etc.
According to a recent HSBC report, India may soon pip Japan and Germany in the list of Hong Kong’s top five trading partners. The report said India would drive Hong Kong’s export growth in the next three years, which the bank estimated at 11 per cent a year. “India became the third-largest destination for Hong Kong jewellery exports in 2012, with an export value of HK$4.9 billion,” said an official of the Hong Kong Jewellery and Jade Manufacturers Association.
Data from Trade Development Council show the export value of precious stones to India jumped about 50 per cent each year between 2006 and 2011.
Source:Business-Standard
Source:Bullion Bulletin