HONG KONG, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Algernon Yau, secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said on Thursday that in the past year, Hong Kong's external trade remained resilient and achieved an encouraging result, making the city the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade after the Chinese mainland, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.

According to the report "Global Trade Outlook and Statistics" published by the World Trade Organization, Hong Kong ranked as the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade in 2025, two places up from 2024. The total merchandise trade recorded a year-on-year increase of 17.5 percent to 1,585 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 3 percent of the world's total.

Yau noted that Hong Kong has long adopted free trade and firmly supports and has upheld the rules-based multilateral trading system to provide trading partners with a predictable and transparent market. In addition, leveraging the institutional advantages under "one country, two systems" and the highly internationalized business environment, Hong Kong has become one of the most important and agile gateways for business and trade in the region.

Yau said the report showed that a series of measures carried out by the HKSAR government for promoting trade, including expanding economic and trade networks, stepping up efforts in attracting enterprises and investment, deepening ties with international markets, exploring emerging markets, enhancing support for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting Hong Kong's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative and opening up the mainland market, have achieved fruitful results, enabling Hong Kong to continue to play a pivotal role in international trade.

He said that this year marks the beginning of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan and the HKSAR government is also formulating Hong Kong's five-year plan to actively align with it. The HKSAR government will continue to promote trade and focus on further assisting mainland enterprises in going global through Hong Kong as a platform to explore new areas of economic growth, in addition to strengthening the aforesaid measures, with a view to fulfilling its roles as a "super connector" and a "super value-adder."