An agreement in numbers
(China Daily)

Hong Kong signed the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the mainland in June 2003 to provide a new platform for economic cooperation between the two sides. After about three years, the agreement has achieved the following results:

Since January 2006, goods originating in Hong Kong have faced no tariffs upon entering the mainland. The mainland has imported Hong Kong-made products worth $1 billion, and $91 million worth of tariffs have been waived.

Service providers from more than 27 sectors in Hong Kong are allowed to enter the mainland market under preferential terms. In some areas, like legal and banking services, the preferential terms are more favorable than what China offers to fellow WTO members. Thirty-eight banks in Hong Kong operate RMB businesses and renminbi deposit accounts.

Some 1,753 Hong Kong-based enterprises have invested in the mainland under the favorable terms offered by the CEPA. The terms include relaxed restrictions on shareholding and lower capital requirements for ventures registering over the long term.

Ten professions have signed mutual recognition or exemption arrangements with their mainland counterparts. Some 1,400 architects were recently recognized by both sides.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/29/2007 page4)