Invest Hong Kong, the investment promotion department of the Hong Kong government, welcomed the results released Tuesday that Hong Kong remained the preferred city in Aisa for overseas and Chinese mainland's companies.

The results are based on the "Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong Representing Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong" conducted by the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

"According to the survey results, of the 6,440 companies in Hong Kong representing parent companies located outside Hong Kong, 3,890 are regional offices or headquarters. This is an all-time high," said Mike Rowse, the Director-General of Investment Promotion.

Rowse emphasized the important role played by overseas and Chinese mainland's companies in Hong Kong. "Headquarters, regional offices and local offices together employ almost 346,000 people in Hong Kong, accounting for around one in 10 of our working population."

He said he was also delighted to see the healthy growth trend over the past 10 years, with the number of regional headquarters and regional offices increased by 55 percent.

At the same time, Invest Hong Kong cautioned that more needed to be done to ensure Hong Kong's continued competitiveness in the years ahead.

Rowse said Hong Kong could not rest on its laurels. "We're at the heart of a competitive, high-growth region and investors have more and more choices. What I'm hearing from the international chambers in Hong Kong and during my trips overseas is that Hong Kong has three key challenges ahead. We need to focus on the high cost of office premises, on improving our air quality and on increasing the number of international school places. The Government is aware of these problems and is working to address them."