Bangalore: Invest Hong Kong, Hong Kong's Government agency today (Oct 31) invited Indian IT firms to use the Far East country as a gateway to enter the mainland China market.

"Hong Kong is an excellent bridge into mainland China. It is close to the Pearl River Delta where 24.5 per cent of the Foreign Direct Investment into China flows," Invest Hong Kong Additional Director General of Investment Promotion John Rutherford told reporters in Bangalore.

He said about 1,000 Indian companies were already located in Hong Kong including IT majors Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

"Our services are aimed at the small and medium enterprises who want to explore the Chinese market. We are best suited to assist and promote firms into the large market," Rutherford said, adding last year, it helped set up 117 companies in Hong Kong with an investment of $ 174 million.

Asserting that Indian companies should view China more as an opportunity than a threat, he said, a free trade agreement between Hong Kong and China was to expect to begin from January 2004.

Rutherford said the Hong Kong Government was setting up a cyber city and science and technology park each with an investment of $ 2 billion and added Indian firms could work on government projects, of which 75 per cent is outsourced to private firms.

PTI