For immediate release
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) welcomes the Fifth Supplement to CEPA, signed today between HKSAR Financial Secretary John Tsang and Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei.
The latest revisions include 29 liberalization measures in 17 service sectors. HKGCC Chairman Andrew Brandler said these cover the major service sectors in Hong Kong, and expand the areas included under CEPA to 40. Among the new commitments, 25 will be initiated as pilot projects in Guangdong to enhance mutual economic and trade cooperation, highlighting the province’s advantages as a testing ground for the rest of the Mainland. He added that Supplement V will bring tangible benefits to many Hong Kong companies and professionals as they make use of the CEPA provisions to expand their operations in the Mainland.
“As the earliest advocate of strongly liberalising commercial relations between Hong Kong and the Mainland, we are pleased to see so many of the measures we recommended to the Hong Kong SAR Government included in this document,” Mr Brandler said.
“Under CEPA Supplement V, the Mainland will further liberalize the services sectors and introduce various measures to foster growth in services. For example, under the framework of Trade and Investment Facilitation, both parties will promote cooperation in ‘Electronic Commerce.’ Under ‘Trademark,’ they will set up a working team to encourage communication and cooperation in trademark registration, management and protection. In addition, ‘Brand Cooperation’ between Hong Kong and the Mainland is a new sector under CEPA Trade and Investment Facilitation. The Chamber has been calling for these measures to be added to CEPA, so we are glad to see they have been included in the latest Supplement.”
HKGCC CEO Alex Fong, commenting on a CEPA working mission that the Chamber organized to Guangdong last year, said: “It was a significant trip for us, because the cases we observed helped to generate proposals for our CEPA Wish List. We are glad to see that the newly signed supplement contains 25 liberalization provisions between Guangdong and Hong Kong, which should allow more Hong Kong enterprises to operate businesses in the province. At the same time, implementation of CEPA will be improved, which will help Hong Kong companies make use of their competitive edge there.”
"We have long described CEPA as a 'living' agreement; this Supplement shows that CEPA is indeed 'full of life'," said Chamber Chairman Mr Brandler. The Chamber urges businesses to take advantage of the new CEPA provisions, and hopes that the Central and HKSAR governments will continue to refine CEPA, particularly with regard to implementation of the agreement.
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