And that's the best message anyone could deliver to the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii, which marked its first year at a banquet over the weekend to install new officers.

Steven Lau, the association's chairman and director, yesterday said a growing number of Hawaii businesses are casting sight on Hong Kong. The young organization has attracted 120 individual and 10 corporate members.

Lau believes such businesses are not overly concerned about Hong Kong's future after the British colony of 156 years goes back to China on July 1.

"I don't see much hesitation," said Lau, vice president and chief financial officer of Fernandez Entertainment Inc., which hopes to open an amusement center in Hong Kong. "Like any business, you need to continue doing what you do. Trade will go on as usual."

Dennis Yau, deputy executive director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said Hong Kong's economy is steaming ahead despite uncertainty about the future. Yau, guest speaker at the weekend banquet, was also here to develop trade relations between the state and Hong Kong.

"Trade is up, real estate is up," Yau said in an interview. "It's very clear that after July 1, more Chinese enterprises will open up in Hong Kong.

"That means more international companies will move to Hong Kong because it's more convenient to do business in China.

"We are not a city of politics -- we are a business city."

Richard Boucher, U.S. consul general in Hong Kong, delivered a similar message at a breakfast forum this week sponsored by the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

Although there are some "serious reservations about some key elements," Boucher said, "finances are in good shape.

The stock exchange and real estate are booming."

Boucher said 95 percent of respondents in a recent survey of U.S. firms in Hong Kong rated business there as favorable or very favorable, up 4 percent from last year.

The Hawaii state government will head two trade missions to Hong Kong in May.

They will focus on agricultural products such as coffee, juices and bottled water and expertise such as engineering, architecture and resort development.

"China is too big -- Hong Kong can't tackle it alone," Yau said. "We welcome the partnership."

Ho traveled there in January for informal meetings with Hong Kong's medical community. "There's a great deal of confidence and what appears to be stability," Ho said. "There's a certain element of wait and see ... there's more wait and see outside (Hong Kong) than inside."

Ho sees Hong Kong as a prime target for promoting health tourism in Hawaii. Residents earn the second highest per capita income in Asia next to Tokyo -- $24,000 a year, according to Yau.

Ho would like to see more economic relations established between Hawaii and Hong Kong and more tourism promotion.

Bahar said, however, that once Hong Kong's new airport opens later this year, Hong Kong airlines have indicated they "will take a serious look at re-establishing a Honolulu-Hong Kong route."

The state also plans to hire a representative there soon, Bahar said.

Yau said Hong Kong residents are now taking weekend trips to Guam, which has three direct flights a week and requires no tourist visas. Yau emphasized that mainland Chinese travelers also like to use Hong Kong as a transit point, and that Hawaii could be an appealing destination from there.

Guam is "not enough of America. It's almost like a Japanese colony," Yau said.

This week China's legislature weakened Hong Kong's civil-liberty laws, saying they contradict the constitution Beijing drafted for the territory after it returns to China.

And the press has already started to censor itself, Boucher said, by not writing stories critical of China.

But Boucher predicted any changes in Hong Kong will be "gradual and subtle."

"We're not talking blood in the streets," he said.