CIFIT to focus on service sector
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-06 16:28

Expected to draw record capital from overseas investors, the Eighth China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) will highlight investing in the service industry and attracting attention from the industrial and commercial circles in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has confirmed it will send a delegation to the upcoming fair, to be held September 8 to 11 in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

During the fair, the delegation will hold a Hong Kong Pavilion Day and a special symposium to promote the region's service industry, Hong Kong officials said at CIFIT promotional event recently held in Hong Kong.

Along with the implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) and the newly reached Pan-Pearl-River Delta Regional Co-operation Framework Agreement, exchanges and co-operation between Hong Kong and the mainland will be further enhanced, said Guo Li, vice-director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR.

The Pan-Pearl-River Delta covers Hong Kong, Macao and eight mainland provinces and one autonomous region in or neighbouring the Pearl River Basin.

Guo hopes that Hong Kong's industrial and commercial circles will make full use of the CIFIT to expand their mainland business.

As an international finance, trade and shipping centre, Hong Kong has a well-developed service industry, with 86 per cent of its gross national product coming from the sector.

The partnership will help make Hong Kong's access on the mainland easier, with the service industry the largest beneficiary, Guo said.

Organizers of CIFIT are also touting the fair's host city Xiamen.

"Xiamen should actively accept the positive influence of Hong Kong's economic development, and help spread the influence to the entire economic zone on the west coast of the Taiwan Straits," said Xiamen Mayor Zhang Changping, who is also vice-director of the Eighth CIFIT's organizing committee.

Zhang said Xiamen will provide more favourable treatment under CEPA to welcome Hong Kong businesses in the city's development in fields such as infrastructure construction, logistics, finance, consulting, education and environmental protection.

"Co-operation between Xiamen and Hong Kong will upgrade Xiamen's economic development and make Xiamen the core of the economic zone on the west coast of the Straits and an important part of the Pan-Pearl-River Delta," added Zhang.

Business people in Hong Kong's service industry have shown great interest in investing in Xiamen, regarding it as one of the most suitable places to develop on the mainland.

According to the organizers, dozens of Hong Kong service agencies engaged in investment consulting, funds management, accounting and legal services have expressed intentions of participating in CIFIT.

Fair officials have also invited other Hong Kong governmental and quasi-governmental agencies such as the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Unit and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

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