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This article reports that China's Guangdong province is firmly set on a road to capitalist prosperity. A $1 billion six-lane toll-levying superhighway, scheduled for completion in mid-1994, will tie Guangdong closer to adjacent, free enterprise Hong Kong and further integrate the two economies. When it is finished, Guangdong will be far closer ideologically as well as geographically to Hong Kong than to Beijing. As recently as 1984, Guangdong ranked fifth among provinces in China in exports, but that was before economic reforms and a massive migration of industry from Hong Kong transformed the economy. As in Korea and Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s, Guangdong's exports are fueling a blaze of growth.

The article focuses on Hong Kong-based money manager Marc Faber of Marc Faber Ltd. Faber's views about inflation and the relative value of assets--be they Mao badges, Hong Kong real estate or emerging market stocks and bonds--are rooted firmly in an Old World belief in the iron law of supply and demand. Sniffing inflation early last year, he bought precious metals stocks and hard assets. But few investors will go to the lengths Faber will to find things that are out of favor. Faber took a doctorate in economics from the University of Zurich and believes that economic history is useful for investors.

The article looks at economic conditions in the Asian city-states of Hong Kong and Singapore as of April 1994. Topics include their status as financial, trading, and service hubs for mainland China and Southeast Asia. Other topics include the shift in their industries from labor-intensive manufacturing to high-value manufacturing. Taxation, government spending, and employee benefits and pensions in the two cities are also discussed.

Profiles Chip Connor, of William E. Connor & Associates Ltd. How the company functions as the overseas buying agent for United States retailers; Perceived importance of monitoring the quality of merchandise and working conditions in factories making goods for United States companies; History of Connor's company, which was founded by his father; Comments of Connor regarding global sourcing.

Focuses on Hong Kong electronics manufacturer VTech Holdings Ltd. Comparison of 1998 stock performance to the local Hang Seng index; Earnings information; The dominance in the markets for electronic learning aids for children and high-frequency cordless telephones; Background of the company; Chairman Allan Wong's approach to his product; The company's international management.

The article presents information about Johnson Electric Industrial Manufactory Ltd. Johnson is the world's second-largest independent producer of micromotors. The billion-dollar micromotor industry is expanding by over 10 per cent a year in volume terms. Johnson was founded in 1959 by Wang Seng Liang, a textile industrialist who immigrated from Shanghai via Taiwan. Johnson has subcontracted much of its most labor-intensive processes to factories just across the border near the booming city of Shenzhen, China.

The article focuses on Robin Hall, a onetime London investment banker in his experience as an investor. Hall was the who founded the Taiwan Fund, the first foreign fund that was permitted to invest in Taiwan. Hall stresses that for 20 years he was able to manage an investment in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. However, he had encountered problems with the Taiwan's financial jungle. Hall describes Taipei market has a riddle with stock manipulation in which standard financial market does not exist.

Reports that although Hong Kong's economy is in good shape, tourist attractions are gone and prices have increased dramatically. Reasons why the attractions are gone; Reasons for the inflation; Hong Kong prices of various goods compared to prices in New York City; Recommendation to visit, and brief description of Macao, Taipei, Xiamen, and Shanghai.

This article profiles Oei Hong Leong and his Hong Kong, China-based publicly traded investment vehicle China Strategic Investment Ltd. (CSI), which has committed to spend about $300 million on the mainly domestic consumer-good factories. Oei has used connections and his considerable charm to buy controlling interests in nearly 200 former state-run factories in China since early 1992. Last year CSI simultaneously purchased a majority stake in all 41 state- run factories in Quanzhou from the local government, and took control of more than 30 plants in Ningbo, a deep-water port near Shanghai. Early this year Oei's firm snapped up 101 state-owned factories in the northeast port city of Dalian. Production capacity of CSI's pulp and paper plant in Ningbo was raised from 36,000 tons to 50,000 tons after the process was adjusted by experts brought in from Indonesia.

The article focuses on the Hong Kong's most profitable newspaper "The South China Morning Post." Publisher of an English-language daily with a circulation of just 110,000 in a city that's 97% Chinese, South China Morning Post (Holdings) Ltd. earned $68 million--after taxes--on $118 million in revenues in the fiscal year 1992. In late 1986 to early 1987, the owners sold the paper to Media Tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd. In buying the Post, Murdoch saw something that escaped the sellers: a tight labor market and a surging middle class of Chinese job-hoppers who eagerly pored over the Post's classified help-wanted advertisements. Since Murdoch acquired the Post, classified lineage has nearly trebled and rates have been almost doubled. Such large employers as Hongkong Bank and Cathay Pacific are virtually permanent job advertisers.

Reports that as there is risk in every business and career decision, so is there risk in Hong Kong's future. Yet it remains fertile ground for Americans seeking their fortunes. Profiles several businessmen including a hotelier, a mountain gear man, and a publisher.

The article reports on the economic conditions in Hong Kong following the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China in 1997. Topics discussed include the regional turmoil adversely affecting the region's economy, the decline of the stock markets, and the decrease in property prices in 1998. Also mentioned are the business conditions in Hong Kong following its handover to China.