Service-oriented trade pact further opens Guangdong to Hong Kong firms
Deal gives service companies more freedom to operate in Guangdong as leaders plot a free-trade zone in province to rival that of Shanghai
Hong Kong firms now have greater access to Guangdong and more freedom to operate there, under a new trade liberalisation agreement expected to pave the way for the development of a free trade zone in the province to rival that of Shanghai.
The Hong Kong government and the national Ministry of Commerce yesterday signed an agreement based on the framework of the 11-year-old Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa), which liberalised cross-border trade.
The latest agreement focuses on the service sector in Guangdong, compared with the nationwide access allowed under Cepa, first signed in 2003 in the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome pandemic.
Yesterday's agreement, known as Achieving Basic Liberalisation of Trade in Services in Guangdong, removes barriers on 58 sectors such as property, environment and computer installation services from Hong Kong.
Another 75 service sectors are partially liberalised and are subject to limits through a so-called negative list, which spells out the restrictions on their freedoms rather than the specific freedoms allowed under the previous "positive list" approach. Hong Kong firms are treated equally as native mainland companies in general, but have to observe exceptions spelled out in the list.
"There is breakthrough in the format and the content," Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said yesterday, referring to the negative list.
Gao Yan, the vice-minister of commerce, said Guangdong was home to a pilot study of new liberalisation measures, which the central government wants to expand nationwide by the end of next year.