Tax havens not sole attraction

Of all the years I worked in Hong Kong as a reporter covering markets and companies, I never knew that the place was a tax haven. Stories on that topic were mainly about Hong Kong companies moving their domiciles to overseas tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, or some exotic locale in the Pacific.

Therefore, I was most surprised to read of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's attempt at the London G20 meeting to include Hong Kong in the list of tax havens. Thanks to the intervention of Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama, Hong Kong, along with Macao and some other jurisdictions, were rightfully taken off the final list.

Hong Kong has played host to the regional headquarters of many foreign banks and multinational companies. These establishments chose Hong Kong over other economies for myriad reasons. One of them is tax.