Following a sharp year-on-year contraction of 7.8% in the first quarter of 2009, real gross domestic product (GDP) registered a smaller decline of 3.8% in the second quarter.

Director rings Nasdaq closing bell
Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, New York Monica Chen rang the closing bell at the Nasdaq Stock Market on August 3 as part of the festivities to celebrate the 19th Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York.

Miss Chen noted that the festival, the largest and among the oldest in the United States, was started by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York in 1991, and has become a fixture of New York’s summer calendar.

Hong Kong/Guangdong cooperation advances
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang and Guangdong Province Gov. Huang Huahua recently co-chaired the 12th Plenary of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Cooperation Joint Conference in Hong Kong.

Both sides, reviewing the progress of major cooperation initiatives over the past year and discussing future direction, agreed August 19 that concrete results had been attained in key areas, including the implementation of the “Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta” (the Outline), major cross-boundary infrastructural projects and boundary-control points, environmental protection, commerce and trade, finance, medical technology, education, tourism and town planning and development.

19th Annual Dragon Boat Festival draws 50,000 in New York
A total of 151 North American dragon boat racing teams competed at the 19th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York held August 8-9.

The event, which was first introduced to New Yorkers in 1991 by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY), features prominently in New York City’s summer calendar.