Boundless Ocean - that is a fitting description of the potential of the China market after the country enters the WTO. It is also the name of the vice minister who received the Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries delegation to Beijing on July 16.

Arriving on the first day after the memorable weekend when Beijing won the bid to host the Olympic Games, the nine-member delegation, led by HKCSI Chairman Stanley Ko and Vice Chairman Anthony Griffiths, felt a lingering euphoria as they travelled from the airport to their meeting with the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC).

The Olympics was the first thing Mr Ko mentioned to SDPC Vice Minister Wang Yang. Everybody saw the relevance - after all, for Beijing City much of the Olympics will be about the service industries, about hospitality, efficient and friendly services, about connecting to the whole world.

Mr Wang told the Hong Kong delegation that SDPC Minister Zeng Peiyan had agreed to be an Honorary Patron of the congress, and that the commission had committed itself to sending a senior delegation to attend the congress, led by a ministerial level official.

The delegation spent the rest of the afternoon discussing service sector issues with the SDPC. They first met with the Department of Long Term Planning led by Yang Weimin. The department was the main contributor to the Tenth Five-Year Plan which was having a lot of coverage countrywide. This was followed by another meeting with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the SDPC, which fielded six experts from various fields to answer questions from the Hong Kong side.

From the discussion it was evident that the Mainland officials and economists were very conversant about Hong Kong. They were well acquainted, for instance, with long-term infrastructure projects such as the Deep Bay Crossing into Shekou and the planned Lingdingyang Bridge from Zhuhai. WTO remained a subject of great mutual interest and a lot of common ground seemed to exist, especially as the two sides exchanged views on logistics. Apparently, that was a priority area of development for both the Mainland planners and the Hong Kong business people. After all, logistics is where trade, commerce and distribution, and where Hong Kong and Mainland interests, converge.

The next morning the delegation called on the Department of Trade and Market headed by Director General Huang Hai of the State Economic and Trade Commission. His portfolio covered retail, distribution, servicing trades, transport and logistics - very important sectors not least because of the huge employment potential they bring about for the country.

The delegation then visited the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and were received by Director General of International Trade and Economic Affairs Yi Xiaozhun.

One recurrent theme highlighted with MOFTEC, but also mentioned in all other meetings, was the fulfilment of liberalisation commitments by the Central Government, whether as a concession for WTO entry or a unilateral opening to boost the central and western region. The Hong Kong delegation stressed that central policies must be matched by concrete action by the local governments, if the objectives of reform or market opening were to be accomplished. This point was clearly appreciated by officials that the delegation met.