24-34  Number of Companies in Hong Kong that are Regional Headquarters
by Country/Territory of Incorporation/Location of the Parent Company
Item	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Number of companies in Hong Kong	855	944	948	966	1 098
that are regional headquarters
Countries/territories with the
largest number of regional headquarters
in Hong Kong
United States of America	212	221	233	242	256
Japan	127	160	159	168	198
The mainland of China	69	70	96	84	106
United Kingdom	81	90	80	86	105
Germany	50	56	52	56	67
France	28	43	35	44	47
Netherlands	31	48	39	38	46
Switzerland	29	34	36	40	39
Singapore	21	25	26	22	35
Taiwan,China	21	22	21	18	29
Australia	9	15	13	22	18
Sweden	15	16	17	16	16
Canada	21	16	23	19	15
Republic of Korea	15	13	17	15	15
Denmark	6	10	11	10	15
Italy	10	7	10	7	15
Notes : Figures refer to the first working day of June of the year.
A regional headquarters (RHQ) is an office that has control over the operations of offices in the region (i.e. Hong Kong plus one or more other
places), and manages the business without frequent referrals to its parent company outside Hong Kong.
In the case of a joint-ventured regional headquarters in Hong Kong, there may be more than one country/territory of incorporation /location
of its parent company/companies.