Minister of Commerce Chen Deming delivered a speech in Hong Kong at the Forum on China's 12th Five-Year Plan; Economic, Trade; Financial Co-operation; Development between Mainland; Hong Kong on August 17. Chen Deming said that deepening the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, expanding the opening up of services trade to Hong Kong, and strengthening economic and trade cooperation between Mainland and Hong Kong will play a more important role in promoting the sustainable and sound economic development of Mainland and Hong Kong.

Chen Deming said that economic and trade cooperation between Mainland and Hong Kong has risen to a new level after the signing and implementation of Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). In 2010, bilateral trade volume reached US$ 230.8 billion, 88 times of that in 1978. Mainland attracted US$ 60.5 billion of investment from Hong Kong, and investment from Mainland nonfinancial enterprises in Hong Kong was US$ 33.7 billion, accounting for 57.2% and 49.7% of their respective FDI.

According to Chen, with increasing uncertainties and instabilities in current world economic recovery, the stable development of emerging markets is confronted with greater pressure and challenges brought by global financial crisis. Further strengthening trade and financial cooperation between Mainland and Hong Kong will play a more important role in promoting a sustainable and sound economic development of Mainland and Hong Kong. Chen put forward five proposals to deepen economic and trade cooperation between Mainland and Hong Kong:

First, deepen Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, and further liberalize services trade to Hong Kong. In order to achieve the goal of services trade liberalization between Mainland and Hong Kong by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, new sectors should be listed for liberalization in Supplementary Agreement VIII to CEPA under negotiation and in the future agreements. Meanwhile, some sectors that have been liberalized should be opened up further so as to effectively increase the benefits of CEPA.

Second, enhance cooperation with Hong Kong in the services sector while expanding opening up. As of 2012, some colleges and universities in Mainland will run the pilot program of enrolling Hong Kong students for free. We will support the establishment of sub-centers of national engineering research center and hi-tech industrial bases in Hong Kong, and increase facilitation for technological innovation in Hong Kong. At the same time, we will support the establishment of Hong Kong travel agencies in Mainland, and allow Hong Kong people that acquired professional qualifications of the construction sector through mutual recognition to be registered with equal treatment in Guangdong, and further strengthen Mainland-Hong Kong cooperation in legal services.

Third, actively support Hong Kong in multilateral and regional economic cooperation, and create development opportunities for Hong Kong. We will conduct research on ways and methods for Hong Kong to join the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) that Mainland has signed, and fully support Hong Kong in direct negotiation with Mainland's FTA trade partners. Meanwhile, Mainland will show concerns for Hong Kong's interests in global economic governance and in the accelerated implementation of FTA strategy, and increase coordination and interaction with Hong Kong in the WTO and APEC.

Fourth, continue to encourage Mainland and Hong Kong to join hands to "go global" and explore the global market. As one of the areas with the most advanced services industry in the world, Hong Kong enjoys obvious advantages in such areas as finance, legal service, insurance, taxation, accounting, design and consulting, which are urgently needed by Mainland's enterprises in their "Going Global" strategy, and thus serves as an important platform for Mainland's enterprises to compete in the international market. It is necessary to increase policy support to encourage enterprises of Mainland and Hong Kong to "go global" by a variety of ways, and jointly explore the international market.

Fifth, maintain the basic stability of the processing trade policy, and continue to make efforts to ensure supply of materials to Hong Kong. We will continue to support the steady development and transformation and upgrading of Hong Kong processing trade enterprises in Mainland, innovate management, strengthen employment services, provide financing and insurance support, establish and improve facilitation mechanisms for domestic sales of processing trade enterprises, and promote the transformation and upgrading of demonstration areas of processing trade in the Pearl River Delta Region. We will ensure supply of grain, meat, fruits and vegetables to Hong Kong, strengthen supervision and management on safety of food supplying to Hong Kong against the rising food prices in Mainland, so as to satisfy the needs of Hong Kong people. We will take measures to guarantee the supply of natural sand to Hong Kong, as exports of which is strictly controlled in Mainland.

The forum was sponsored by Hong Kong SAR Government, MOFCOM, NDRC and the People's Bank of China, About 1,000 representatives from all walks of life in Hong Kong SAR and Mainland attended the forum.