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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Ting-kwong and the written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (March 22):
Question:
It has been reported that in order to encourage Hong Kong businessmen to invest in Guangzhou, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Guangzhou Municipal Government and the trade associations concerned reached a co-operation agreement and formed the Guangzhou-Hong Kong CEPA Market Entry Facilitation Group (Facilitation Group) in late November last year, with a view to assisting Hong Kong businessmen in resolving the difficulties they encounter in obtaining approval for starting businesses or in applying for setting up individually owned stores. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number and nature of complaint and distress cases received by the Facilitation Group since the commencement of its operation and, among such cases, the number of those already resolved and their nature;
(b) whether the authorities will study these complaint and distress cases, so as to explore ways to perfect the zero tariff preferential arrangement under CEPA; and
(c) of the main role of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong in the Facilitation Group, and the time for the Administration to examine jointly with the Mainland authorities the establishment of similar facilitation groups in other provinces and municipalities?
Reply:
Madam President,
To facilitate Hong Kong service suppliers to fully capitalise on the advantages offered under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) when developing their business in the services market in Guangzhou, the Guangzhou-Hong Kong CEPA Market Entry Facilitation Group (Facilitation Group) was set up in the end of 2005 by the two sides. The Facilitation Group, comprising representatives from Hong Kong and Mainland authorities, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) and various trade associations, aims to provide assistance to Hong Kong businessmen who have encountered difficulties in accessing the services market in Guangzhou under the framework of CEPA, such as obtaining approval for starting businesses and applying for setting up individually owned stores. The Facilitation Group offers assistance through referral of cases, regular meetings and networking the designated liaison officers of both sides.
The immediate priority of the Facilitation Group upon establishment is to promote its services among the Hong Kong business community, and to pick up appropriate cases for follow up. In this connection, the Trade and Industry Department (TID), the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong of the SAR Government (GDETO) and TDC have organised promotional and publicity activities including talks, seminars, etc. to enhance the understanding of the industries on the work of the Facilitation Group, as well as to solicit their views.
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Wong Ting-kwong is as follows:
(a)&(b) Since its establishment just three months ago, the Facilitation Group has received about 23 enquiries concerning mainly setting up enterprises in Guangzhou from the wholesale, retail, trading, logistics and management advisory services sectors. The TID has also taken the initiative to approach enterprises issued with Certificates of Hong Kong Service Supplier with a view to introducing to them the work of the Facilitation Group, and referring cases it comes across to the Facilitation Group as appropriate.
Apart from providing direct assistance to Hong Kong businessmen, the Facilitation Group also serves as a platform for exchanging information on the implementation of CEPA in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It disseminates updated information on implementation details through related websites and collects information about cases relating to Mainland policies and their implementation problems faced by Hong Kong businessmen (such as coverage of liberalisation and entry threshold). The SAR Government will reflect the issues concerned to the Central Government as well as relevant authorities in Guangzhou and Hong Kong through the liaison mechanism under CEPA so as to ensure effective implementation of CEPA.
The main objective of the Facilitation Group is to assist Hong Kong service suppliers in matters relating to services market access in Guangzhou such as obtaining approval for starting businesses or setting up individually owned stores. Its work does not involve trade in goods nor does it cover the zero tariff preferential arrangement.
(c) The Facilitation Group operates under the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Guangzhou Municipality and the TDC of Hong Kong, with the TID and the GDETO serving as members. The SAR Government will join hands with the TDC to promote the work of the Group and encourage the business sector to refer relevant cases to it.
The SAR Government, the TDC and the Guangzhou authorities will regularly review the effectiveness of the Facilitation Group as well as the demand of the Hong Kong businessmen for the services provided before exploring the feasibility of providing similar services to other Mainland provinces and cities.
Ends/Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:24
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