Hong Kong could be an ideal gateway for Canadian companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular, to tap the mainland market, said Andrew Turczyniak, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Speaking to China Daily, he said a growing number of Canadian SMEs had shown greater interest to cash in on the mainland's success story after multinational giants such as Manulife and SunLife had set up business there.

However, a lot of them face difficulties due to an inadequate network, he added.

A major difficulty facing the SMEs is their inability to grasp the market changes on the mainland.

"The mainland is an economy evolving very quickly... it takes time for them to adapt to the changes in rules and regulations," although these changes are in a good way that will make the market more transparent and regulated, he said.

To solve the problem, these firms could get into the market through Hong Kong, where starting a business is much easier and market rules play well, said Turczyniak, adding that a cultural link, geographic proximity and increasing economic integration between the mainland and Hong Kong can help with their further expansion.

The mainland now topped the global investment map of Canadian businesses.

It has become Canada's second largest trading partner after the United States, and the Canadian investment there was estimated at 30-40 billion Canadian dollars last year.

Every year, Canadian business community organizes 500 SMEs to seek business opportunities on the mainland and other Asian markets.

Financial market

As CEO of Royal Bank of Canada's Hong Kong branch, Turczyniak said the bank would not rule out the possibility of acquiring a stake in a mainland bank, though no deal may come into reality in near future.

Commenting on the mainland's share market, Turczyniak said he didn't see any abrupt burst-out of the market. Although the abundant liquidity had driven the stocks to a very high level, the mainland government would spare no efforts to rein in the market, he said.

He also said that the mainland market has become more mature and diverse, as more financial products such as index futures, commodity futures and the qualified domestic institutional investor scheme have been introduced.

(HK Edition 11/14/2007 page6)