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5 White Paper on the Business Environment in China

3.6 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

East Asia’s Logistics and Financial Hub speci ed sectors preferential access to markets.
To enhance cooperation between Hong Kong and
Situated at the southeastern tip of China, Hong Kong
is at the center of East Asia. Since its return to the Chinese Mainland China in the services sector, the Chinese central
Mainland in 1997, the special administrative region has been government and the government of the Hong Kong Special
a model for the success of the “One Country, Two Systems” Administrative Region signed the “Tenth Supplement to the
policy. Hong Kong is the world’s 10th largest trading Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership
economy, 6th biggest foreign exchange market and, with its Arrangement” (CEPA) on August 29, 2013, which is
service sector accounting for more than 90 percent of GDP, scheduled to take e ect on January 1, 2014.
the world’s most service-oriented economy, according to the
Hong Kong Development and Trade Council. e Tenth Supplement further relaxes the market access
conditions in 28 existing sectors, namely:
Hong Kong encompasses Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon
Peninsula and the New Territories. Parts of the region consist Legal Distribution
of the most densely populated places in the world, while Construction Environment
others are quite rural. Approximately 88 percent of the Computer and related services Banking
population speaks Cantonese as their rst language, rather Real estate Securities
than the mainland’s o cial language of Mandarin Chinese. Market research Hospital services
Technical testing & analysis Social services
Economy services Tourism
Placement and supply services Cultural
Major economic sectors of Hong Kong include: trade and of personnel Sporting
logistics, tourism, nancial services, professional services and Building-cleaning Maritime transport
other producer services. Mainland China is Hong Kong’s Photographic Air transport
largest trading partner and the largest source of external Printing Road transport
direct investment into Hong Kong. Its relationship covers Convention and exhibition Freight forwarding
a wide range of activities ranging from traditional areas Translation and interpretation agency
such as imports/exports, wholesale and retail, banking and services Trademark agency
transport and warehousing, to newer areas such as real estate, Telecommunications
hotels, nancial services, manufacturing and infrastructure Audiovisual
development.
Furthermore, under the Circular, service providers of
Spotlight on CEPA’s Tenth Supplement Hong Kong and Macao are permitted to establish wholly-
In December 2001, after China’s accession to the WTO, invested entertainment places in the pilot areas of Qianhai,
Shenzhen and Hengqin, Zhuhai.
Hong Kong proposed an arrangement with mainland China
similar to a free trade agreement. By 2002, the o cial Hong Kong’s savvy global business environment has paired
term, Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), well with the PRD’s competitive manufacturing base. According
was con rmed. CEPA promotes closer integration and to China Customs’ statistics, Hong Kong is the country’s
development of the PRD through trade in goods and services, second largest trading partner after the United States. In 2012,
investment facilitation and tourism. mainland imports from Hong Kong amounted to US$18
billion, while exports to Hong Kong were US$323.5 billion.
e basic objectives of CEPA are to phase out tari s and
non-tari barriers on trade in commodities, liberalize trade in Hong Kong overtook London and New York to claim
services and reduce and eliminate all discriminatory measures the top spot in the 2011 World Economic Forum Financial
to boost trade and investment in the Greater PRD.For Development Index, marking 2011 as the rst year an Asian
manufacturing industries, CEPA allows the vast majority of city has topped the rankings. e World Economic Forum
manufactured goods that meet Hong Kongrule of origin and is based on several nancial indicators, including nancial
CEPA speci cations into the Chinese mainland duty-free. access, business environment, banking and nancial services,
In the service sector, CEPA gives Hong Kong companies in transparency, institutional environment, non-banking

258 nancial services and nancial markets. Hong Kong is
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