An Min, Vice Minister, Ministry of Commerce

Hong Kong and Macao has contributed greatly to the reform and opening up of Mainland, while mainland provides a big market for Hong Kong and Macao. And to grasp the CEPA opportunities is the key sector for the cooperation between the 9 provinces/regions and Hong Kong, Macao, says An Min, Vice Minister, Ministry of Commerce on the Pan-PRD Cooperation and Development Forum.

An reveals that from the implementation of CEPA on January 1st this year, everything proceeds smoothly. At the end of May 30, a total of 300 million Hong Kong dollars of goods produced in Hong Kong and Macao have entered the mainland market at zero-tariff. In the same period, over 300 Hong Kong and Macao enterprises have applied for sharing the treatment offered by CEPA, with many of them including banks, telecom companies, logistics companies having been approved.

Hong Kong and Macao are the two important economic partners of the mainland in the past 20 years, and the cooperation between Mainland and Hong Kong, Macao has been expanding and upgrading. Hong Kong is mainland's 3rd largest trade partner, 2nd largest export market and biggest source of foreign investment.

In 2003, the trade value between Mainland and Hong Kong, Macao was nearly 90 billion US Dollars, the foreign direct investment from Hong Kong and Macao exceeded 18 billion US dollars. By the end of 2003, the mainland has approved 230,000 foreign-funded enterprises invested by Hong Kong and Macao, and the accumulated investment capital has reached 227.8 billion US dollars, An said

For the 9 mainland provinces and regions in Pan-Pearl River Delta, their trade with Hong Kong and Macao hit a value of 65.1 billion US dollars in 2003, amounting to 72% of the mainland-Hong Kong/Macao trade value. At the same time, the 9 provinces and regions have absorbed direct investment from Hong Kong and Macao valuing 7.8 billion US dollars, accounting for 43% of the total FDI capital the SARs inject in mainland. This approved the cooperation between 9 provinces/regions and Hong Kong, Macao has a strong basis, says An.

Editor: Catherine