The chair of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner predicts that the new Disney theme park in Hong Kong could create as many as 36,000 jobs for the local economy.

The Hong Kong government is banking on the theme park, which is expected to open in 2005 or 2006, to provide a major boost to the city's tourist industry. It has signed an agreement with Disney that gives the government majority control over the park, contributing more than US$2.8bn in loans and public works investment. The government is also supplying the land for the only nationalised Disney theme park in the world.

The majority of new jobs to be created would be for the lower-skilled end of the travel industry sector, targeting a group which was particularly affected by recent economic slowdown in Asia.