Foreign investors' and workers’ confidence in Hong Kong remains positive despite the challenges the SAR faced in the past five years, a think tank said on Monday.

Path of Democracy conducted a study last year to investigate the international community’s views on the city’s business environment, interviewing 12 foreign chambers of commerce and over 600 expats.

It found that chamber representatives and around 70 percent of expats polled hold a neutral or positive attitude towards doing business in the SAR.

“A lot of expats and the international business community are optimistic towards Hong Kong’s business environment, even though there is intense competition from other cities including Sydney, Dubai, Riyadh and Singapore,” said co-convenor Ray Poon.

He suggested that the government should hold more promotional events for overseas trade to communicate the SAR’s actual situation to counter biased reports from Western media.

Meanwhile, the think tank said Hong Kong’s economic stability and status as a free port remains strong amid US tariffs, with only about one percent of the city’s total exports last year shipped to the country.

The figure, it said, does not include re-export trading, which is largely made up of mainland goods.

The group added Hong Kong mainly exports garment, toys, and electronic products to the US, accounting for HK$6.1 billion. It said businesses could consider selling these products to other markets, such as Japan, South Korea, and Asean countries instead.

Path of Democracy also pointed out that exports to the US is not Hong Kong's economic lifeline, and over 90 percent of the city’s GDP relies on the service industry.

It called for residents to stay resilient under the ever-changing policies of US president Donald Trump.