European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Hong Kong during his two-week trip to Asia and inaugurated the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macao on 23 Nov. In the speech, he pointed out that Europe and Asia now represent half of the world population, more than half of the world’s GDP and 55% of world trade. “Europe has a stake in Asia’s prosperity as much as Asia has a stake in Europe’s prosperity.” He noted the significance of Europe/Hong Kong co-operation in economic aspect,“[…] close to 2,000 European firms based here, and no less than 453 of them have their regional headquarters here, outnumbering both American and Japanese businesses.”[…]As a result, Hong Kong also contributes greatly to the European economy. It is a large investor in the European Union, ranking 8th in terms of stocks and 6th in terms of flows (both in 2011).