Fifty-four percent of respondents in a recent survey of Hong Kong businesses running factories in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province are optimistic about the prospects for their business, an increase compared with the annual survey last year, although those polled continued to book an increase in production costs.

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About 45 percent of the respondents had a positive outlook, according to the annual survey by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries last year. Only 10 percent of the respondents are negative or very negative in this year's survey conducted last month.

About 20 percent of the enterprises in the survey received more orders, the total value of which rose by 16 percent year-on-year on average, although 60 percent of the enterprises received orders similar in value to those last year, said Stanley Lau, chairman of the federation, in a statement on Monday.

The polled enterprises predicted exports would increase by 10 percent year-on-year, with those to traditional markets such as the United States and the European Union expected to increase by 12 percent and 5 percent respectively and those to Asian markets to grow by 5 percent.

The survey indicated the operating environment in the delta remains difficult, with labor problems and labor shortages being the major challenges faced by the majority of the Hong Kong manufacturers, Lau said.

The responding enterprises said production costs had risen by 12 percent year-on-year on average so far this year, with labor costs up by more than 10 percent.

About 80 percent of responding enterprises said their factories in the delta were short of labor, lacking on average 12 percent of general workers, 10 percent of technicians, 12 percent of salespeople and 7 percent of managerial and administrative staff.

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