The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will strengthen cooperation with the Chinese mainland’s service sectors under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) framework, seeking to bring more high-quality professional services from Hong Kong to the mainland market, the city’s chief said on Wednesday.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu made the remarks in the morning when he unveiled the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the HKSAR (2026-2030) and his fifth Policy Address.
He said a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the SAR’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and the country’s Ministry of Commerce, with the goal of comprehensively upgrading CEPA.
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The two sides will work together to deepen ties in the service sector, expanding access to the mainland market and opening up more areas so as to “achieve a higher level of liberalization in service sectors where Hong Kong enjoys competitive advantages”.
According to the five-year development plan, the SAR will continue to strive for the application of national treatment for Hong Kong service suppliers outside the “negative list”, which means suppliers are likely to enjoy the same rights, benefits and privileges as their mainland counterparts.
Other initiatives include improvements to the liberalization commitments of the mainland on cross-boundary trade in services under the “negative list” approach, as well as the promotion of mutual recognition of rules and standards in fields such as trade, investment, finance, intellectual property, and digital governance, the blueprint adds.
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“We will further introduce the quality professional services of Hong Kong into the mainland market to facilitate the high-quality development of mainland service sectors, thereby leveraging Hong Kong’s strengths to serve the country’s needs and injecting great impetus into the long-term development of our economy,” Lee said.
CEPA was the first free trade pact concluded by the Chinese mainland and the HKSAR. In 2024, the two sides reached an amendment agreement under the framework, introducing a series of liberalization measures across sectors, including financial services, construction and related engineering services, testing and certification, telecommunications, motion pictures, television and tourism services.
Contact the writer at: gabylin@chinadailyhk.com
