Replies to initial written questions raised by Finance Committee Members in examining the Estimates of Expenditure 2012-13 Director of Bureau : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Session No. 12 File name : cedb(cit)- doc
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Question : What are the details and breakdown of the expenditure regarding the Administration’s initiative in assisting Hong Kong’s professional services to enter the Mainland market under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement in 2012-13? How do the figures compare with those of 2011-12? Asked by : Hon. LEE Wai-king, Starry Reply : The Government is committed to assisting Hong Kong professional services to enter the Mainland market under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (“CEPA”). We seek various preferential and facilitative measures for Hong Kong professional service providers, including opening up the Mainland professional qualification examinations to eligible Hong Kong residents, encouraging mutual recognition of professional qualifications, facilitating registration and practice, lowering the entry threshold, relaxing scope of services, setting up examination centres in Hong Kong or dedicated examination centres in Guangdong Province to make it more convenient for Hong Kong professionals to sit for the relevant Mainland qualification examinations, etc. We have also been actively addressing implementation problems of liberalisation measures related to professional services. During 2012-13, relevant bureaux and departments will, taking account of the requests and views of the professional sectors, continue to discuss with the respective Mainland authorities to further facilitate eligible Hong Kong residents or professionals in obtaining Mainland professional qualifications and registration, as well as in practising and setting up businesses in the Mainland. We will also actively seek to resolve implementation problems in these areas. The CEPA-related work outlined above is carried out by a number of government agencies. The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (Commerce, Industry and Tourism Branch) is responsible for the overall policy on CEPA; TID oversees bilateral discussions on further liberalisation and implementation of liberalisation measures under CEPA; and individual bureaux and departments deal with liberalisation and specific implementation issues in the relevant service sectors. The resource requirements are absorbed by relevant bureaux/departments respectively, and we do not have information on the actual amount involved.
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