THE GEOGRAPHY OF HONG-KONG TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN THE ASEAN REGION

Using primary data from 175 personal interviews and published secondar y data from host countries, this paper presents a preliminary analysis of the complex geography of Hong Kong transnational corporations (HKT NCs) and their foreign direct investment flows in South-east Asia. It shores that HKTNCs are a major source of investment in Indonesia, Sing apore and Thailand. The majority of HKTNCs are engaged in commercial a nd service activities. The paper also shores that geography is embedde d within transnational organisations. While family business tends to d ominate most manufacturing HKTNCs, many service HKTNCs are organised i n such a may that professional executives have taken over the manageme nt control of the company. All sampled HKTNCs have entered into variou s forms of transnational operations in order to overcome host country regulatory regimes.