Qiu Yinghua: Encourage Hong Kong businessmen in Guangdong province to actively innovate and start businesses in mainland China.

On March 10, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, Edward Yau, attended the "Innovation Forum for Future Achievements of New Productivity" in Guangzhou and encouraged Hong Kong businesses in Guangdong to actively innovate and start businesses in mainland China, contributing to the country's development. He also encouraged full utilization of domestic and international networks, to continue leveraging Hong Kong's role as a "super connector" and "super value-added person" to help Hong Kong better integrate into the national development while maintaining its international connections and making greater contributions to the country's opening-up policy. Yau mentioned that the new revision of the "Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement" (CEPA) on Trade in Services between Mainland and Hong Kong came into effect on March 1. The new agreement not only adds open measures in Hong Kong's advantageous service areas, but also updates and adds measures for "Hong Kong investment with Hong Kong law" and "Hong Kong arbitration", and cancels the annual limit for "Hong Kong service providers" in most areas, making it easier for Hong Kong enterprises and professionals to enter the mainland Chinese market. Yau pointed out that global e-commerce has been developing rapidly in recent years, with mainland China being the largest e-commerce market in the world, offering unlimited opportunities. With the development pattern of a "dual circulation" strategy, the demand in the mainland Chinese market is expected to continue growing, becoming a crucial engine for economic growth and providing massive market and development space for businesses. Therefore, the Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau established a cross-departmental "E-commerce Development Taskforce" last year to coordinate and formulate e-commerce development policies and measures, assisting Hong Kong enterprises in seizing e-commerce opportunities. At the same time, under the "BUD Special Fund", Hong Kong has launched the "E-commerce Easy" initiative, which allows each enterprise to implement e-commerce projects with a subsidy of up to HK$1 million to expand the domestic market. The scope of the "E-commerce Easy" initiative will also be expanded to cover the ten countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), assisting businesses in market expansion. Additionally, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council will continue to hold the "Hong Kong Goodies Expo" on mainland Chinese e-commerce platforms in August this year to enhance the brand awareness of Hong Kong products and increase sales.