24-35  Number of Companies in Hong Kong that are Regional Offices
by Country/Territory of Incorporation/Location of the Parent Company
Item	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Number of companies in Hong Kong	2146	2293	2171	2241	2511
that are regional offices
Countries/territories with the
largest number of regional offices
in Hong Kong
United States of America	358	420	437	498	557
Japan	492	533	471	442	515
United Kingdom	155	163	163	196	211
The mainland of China	160	172	170	148	156
Germany	93	108	96	122	135
Taiwan,China	113	142	121	111	128
France	88	88	91	101	106
Singapore	76	77	79	81	97
Switzerland	69	68	61	61	70
Republic of Korea	71	76	49	60	67
Australia	42	43	52	45	57
Italy	43	52	38	41	54
Netherlands	65	62	57	55	52
Sweden	23	27	25	28	33
Canada	30	34	28	27	29
Note: Figures refer to the first working day of June of the year.
A regional office (RO) is an office that coordinates offices/operations in the region (i.e. Hong Kong plus one or more other places), and manages
the business but with frequent referrals to its parent company outside Hong Kong or its regional headquarters .
In the case of a joint-ventured regional office in Hong Kong, there may be more than one country/territory of incorporation/location of its parent
company/companies.