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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, April 13, 2002

Two Systems Remain Despite HKSAR's Economic Integration With Mainland

Five years on after the July 1 handover in 1997, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) remains a separate economic system in strict accordance with the Basic Law of the HKSAR, despite its increasing economic interactions with the Chinese mainland.


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Five years on after the July 1 handover in 1997, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) remains a separate economic system in strict accordance with the Basic Law of the HKSAR, despite its increasing economic interactions with the Chinese mainland.

With the Asian financial turmoil in 1998 and the September 11th attacks in New York last year, Hong Kong's economy was affected, said Yu Xiaosong, chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).

Speaking at the symposium in commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the promulgation of Review of the Principle of 'One Country, Two Systems, Yu said a new subject to study for the Hong Kong economic community as to how to maintain the prosperity and development of Hong Kong has, therefore, arisen.

With Hong Kong being widely reported to be in the process of integrating with China's mainland, Yu agrees the economic prosperity of Hong Kong will, indeed, hinge on the economic development of the mainland in the days to come.

"The proposal raised by the HKSAR for a special close economic relationship between Hong Kong and the mainland is a key subject for study for the economic communities of both sides, whose constructive ideas shall be crucial to the governmental decisions, " Yu stressed.

"I think the mechanism of roundtable meetings proves an effective mechanism of multilateral cooperation and improvement of trading environment under the new conditions," he said.

In spite of the economic integration taking place, the HKSAR's and the mainland's economic systems will continue to remain two separate ones in compliance with the Basic Law.

This is because as Ko Siu Wah, chairperson of the Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Basic Law of Hong Kong remarked recently at the symposium, the Basic Law is the bedrock of Hong

Kong's legal literature and charts the course for Hong Kong's economic development, as well as its people's way of living, even the general public here is well aware of the distinctions in their system from those of the mainland, not because many go into studying the legal details of the law. But a series of funny and lively promotional footages on the Basic Law recently produced by the HKSAR government has done a successful job heightening public awareness in how the law applies to their economic and business life.

One of the most popular ones frequently shown on TV goes like this: "'Let's go for it. But what are about foreign exchange? ' asked from afar a sophisticated looking English woman business executive in a conference via the internet. Then the Hong Kong businessman answered via the web camera and microphone, 'No problem! Article 112 of the Basic Law guarantees the free flows of capital into and out of Hong Kong," says one of the footages.

Another footage shows a Hong Kong businessman telling a foreign businessman, "Prices should not be a problem." Article 114 of the Basic Law Hong Kong provides that Hong Kong is a free port with no tariffs, as they look across the harbor at the magnificent skyline of business districts on Hong Kong Island.

Such footages only attempted to highlight snippets of the Basic Law in Hong Kong people's economic life; as a matter of fact, the law contains one whole chapter on the economy of Hong Kong, divided into four sections.

The sections cover Hong Kong's public finance, monetary affairs, trade, industry, commerce, land leases, shipping and civil aviation.

Yu Xiaosong stressed that China's accession to World Trade Organization (WTO) last year and China's further and comprehensive opening-up and reform will continue to offer fresh opportunities to HKSAR, he said.

He added that another transition of economic structure awaits Hong Kong and that the shift, from trading to hi-tech, and from property to hi-tech investment or venture capital, shall be an enormous transition.


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