With the signing of a supplementary agreement of the mainland/Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the Chinese mainland will further open its services and trade sectors to Macao and strengthen the cooperation in trade and investment facilitation in this regard, said a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

Vice Minister of Commerce Liao Xiaoqi and Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), signed the third supplementary agreement of the mainland/Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) on Monday, said the official, who is attending a Forum on Economic and Trade Cooperation and Development Between the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao which was held here Thursday.

According to the supplementary agreement of CEPA to be in operation as of Jan. 1, 2007, the Chinese mainland will take 13 new measures for further opening to Macao in such sectors as law, construction, exhibition, audio-visual, distribution, tourism, transportation and self-employed business. The measures include relaxation of share-holding restrictions, lowering threshold like registration capital and other conditions for registration, and widening business scope and area, and relaxing the conditions for natural person flow.

In the sphere of trade and investment facilitation, the two sides decided to include cooperation in convention and exhibition business in their original cooperation range. Besides, the two sides also decided to list the cooperation in the intellectual property protection in the CEPA framework.

Since its signing some three years ago, CEPA has been implemented smoothly and generated fruitful results, said the official.

The official said that the Chinese mainland pledged to further implement the measures it committed in CEPA in the future and raise the level of cooperation between the two sides and push forward the prosperity of both the mainland and Macao.

The Chinese mainland and Macao signed their CEPA in October 2003.

Source: Xinhua