Established in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is the international marketing arm for Hong Kong-based traders, manufacturers and service providers. With more than 40 global offices, including 11 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China and Asia.

The HKTDC connects millions of international buyers and sellers through a variety of integrated services, namely its trade fairs, online marketplace and product magazines.

One of the world's major trade fair organisers, the HKTDC puts on more than 30 international trade fairs annually in Hong Kong. Ten of these are the biggest of their kind in Asia.

The HKTDC website, www.hktdc.com, features about 900,000 registered buyers and more than 120,000 quality suppliers from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and beyond. Users can browse through more than 7,000 clearly defined product categories to find products and services quickly and efficiently.

With 15 product magazines and industry supplements and more than five million readers, the HKTDC is a major publisher. The HKTDC also produces about 150 trade reports, sector-specific updates and business newsletters a year, providing timely market intelligence on Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and international markets.

Supporting these services is HKTDC Business Matching, which helps companies find the right partners. Its global databank includes about 1.2 million business contacts.

The HKTDC also produces more than 160 seminars, conferences, workshops and forums a year to help Hong Kong companies develop new markets for their products and services. As well, it organises about 600 Hong Kong promotional events around the world, reaching nearly 100,000 business people in key markets each year, and receives about 600 international business missions a year.

The HKTDC's international reach is reflected in the six bilateral committees it serves. These high-level business forums promote economic ties between Hong Kong and the European Union, France, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. The HKTDC also serves as Secretariat for the Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide.