Hong Kong and Macao permanent residents will have no choice but commercial retailing if they start self-employed business in Guangdong Province.

And venues for their businesses can cover no more than 300 square metres as of 2004.

"CEPA (closer economic partnership arrangement) stipulates the limitations, whether or not they will be lifted, will be subject to the future negotiations and agreements among the central government and the special administrative regions (SAR) of Hong Kong and Macao,'' Xie Derong, director of foreign-funded enterprise registry division of Guangdong Provincial Industrial and Commercial Administration, told China Daily yesterday (Dec 25th).

Hong Kong/Macao residents will be able to enjoy treatments almost the same as local people if they run self-employed business in Guangdong Province as of 2004, he said in a telephone interview.

It will take Hong Kong/Macao residents only five days to go through all the procedures for a self-employed business and they need to spend only 20 yuan (US$2.41) to register, the same fee people in the province pay.

What is different is that local people have more choices besides retailing as in self-employment, he said.

In the light of the CEPA with Hong Kong and Macao, Hong Kong/Macao permanent residents will no longer be treated as overseas investors when they apply for registry of commercial retailing business (excluding licensed business) and their stores cover an area of no more than 300 square metres.

The new policy has aroused great interest among Hong Kong and Macao residents and hundreds of them have submitted online related documents to the provincial industrial and commercial administration, he said.

Due to geographical proximity, the province will continue to be the first choice for new self-employed businesses, he said.

He said that the industrial and commercial administration offices throughout the province will take steps to make applications of the Hong Kong/Macao residents more convenient.

According to the official, each Hong Kong/Macao resident can only apply for one self-employed business if they produce notarized identification documents.

Experts said that the permission and convenience for Hong Kong/Macao residents to run such businesses will likely lead to a rush for self-employed businesses in the province, imposing growing pressure on other local businesses.

However, they said, if Hong Kong/Macao self-employed business owners are law-abiding, they will set an example for their local counterparts and help keep the operations of such businesses on track in the province.

Editor: Wing