TRADE AND INDUSTRY
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investment, and operates overseas Industrial Promotion Units in Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Brussels and London. These provide advice and assistance on investment opportunities in Hong Kong's manufacturing sector and give assistance in the development of investment plans.
Hong Kong has concluded investment promotion and protection agreements with several of its major investment partners, including the Netherlands and Australia. During 1994, agreements were signed with Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
Documentation of Imports and Exports
As a free port, Hong Kong keeps its import and export licensing requirements to a minimum. Most products do not need licences to enter or leave the territory. Where licences or notifications are required, they are intended to achieve two main objectives. Firstly, they help Hong Kong to fulfil its international obligations to restrain exports of textile products and to monitor the flow of these products into and out of Hong Kong. Secondly, they are imposed on health, safety, environmental, security or anti-smuggling grounds. Items covered include strategic commodities, reserved commodities, pharmaceutical products and medicines, pesticides, radioactive substances and irradiating apparatus, left-hand drive vehicles and ozone-depleting substances.
Hong Kong maintains a certification of origin system that, apart from enabling the origin of goods which Hong Kong exports to be established, also supports claims for preferential tariff treatment from donor countries where such schemes are operated: The Trade Department administers this system and issues certificates of origin where required. Five other organisations have been designated by the government to issue certificates of origin. They are the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, the Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong and the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce.
Electronic Data Interchange
Hong Kong's use of electronic data interchange has expanded considerably during the past few years. Electronic data interchange, the computer-to-computer exchange of business information in a standard format, is one of the techniques being implemented worldwide in an attempt to curb the amount of paperwork involved in business and to improve efficiency. The government is keen to encourage this trend to maintain the territory's competitive- ness in international markets. A particularly important area is the processing of statutory trade documents. Following a joint study with Tradelink Electronic Document Services Limited (a group of 11 leading trade-related organisations in Hong Kong), the government has taken a substantial shareholding in the company. Tradelink will fund and manage a Community Electronic Trading Service. The service will act as the electronic gateway between the trading community and the relevant government departments, checking and validating electronic submissions before passing them on for approval.
Both Tradelink and the government are now installing the computer systems required. The current plan is to launch a commercial service in 1996. The scope of the initial service will cover the lodging of trade declarations and applications for export licences for textiles and clothing shipped under quota. The service will bring about a significant increase in the number of companies using electronic data interchange.