Macao granted better market access to Chinese mainland amid financial crisis

Source: Xinhua | 05-12-2009 08:26

MACAO, May 11 (Xinhua) -- As an effort to shore up Macao's gaming-centered economy in the face of global financial crisis, and help it diversify in the long run, China's central government has stepped up its move to open the vast mainland market to the Special Administrative Region (SAR) through a series of trade deals and policy measures.

The Supplement VI to the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA6), which was signed here on Monday by Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance of the SAR government and the central government's Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei, was the latest effort by the mainland to support the development of the SAR and forge closer trade ties between the two places, especially that between Macao and the neighboring Guangdong province.

The CEPA between the mainland and the Macao SAR was firstly signed in 2003 and took effect in the following year, after which some six supplement protocols to the trade agreement have been signed so far as a step-by-step effort to open the mainland market to Macao.

Driven by the implementation of CEPA and its supplementary protocols, the liberalization of various sectors in the mainland market to Macao was deepened every year after 2003. In particular, the mainland authorities have exempt tariffs for all products, except for those banned and specially designated, of Macao origin. Statistics from the SAR government also showed that some 500 Macao companies and individually-owned businesses were established in the mainland by the end of last year. The number of Macao residents passing the qualification exams of various professions in the mainland, such as law, medical practice, cooking, hair dressing, etc, was also on the rise in recent years.