TRADE AND INDUSTRY
102
major investment partners: Australia, Austria, Belgium/Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Documentation of Imports and Exports
As a free port, the HKSAR has minimal import and export licensing requirements. Most products do not need licences to enter or leave Hong Kong. Where licences or notifications are required, they are intended to achieve two main objectives. First, they help the HKSAR to fulfil its international obligations to restrain exports of textiles products and to monitor the flow of these products into and out of Hong Kong. Secondly, they are imposed on grounds of health, safety, environmental protection, anti-smuggling efforts or unrestricted access to high technology products. Items covered include strategic commodities, reserved commodities, pharmaceutical products and medicines, pesticides, radioactive substances and irradiating apparatus, left-hand-drive vehicles, ozone-depleting substances and optical disc mastering and replication equipment.
The HKSAR maintains a certification of origin system that, apart from certifying the origin of Hong Kong exports, also supports claims for preferential tariff treatment from donor countries. The Trade Department administers this system and issues certificates of origin. 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
Electronic data interchange, the computer-to-computer exchange of business. information in standard formats is one technique being implemented world wide in an attempt to curb the amount of paperwork involved in business and to improve efficiency. Hong Kong's use of electronic data interchange has continued to expand. The Community Electronic Trading Service (CETS), a joint venture involving the government and 11 leading trade-related organisations in Hong Kong, entered its second year of operation. At the end of the year, some 22 000 companies registered with the CETS to apply for textile export licences or lodge import and export declarations. This number is expected to continue to increase because in January 1999 CETS will become the only means of applying for textiles export licences and, in April 2000, for lodging import and export declarations.
The Industry Department
The Industry Department's mission is to facilitate the development of manufacturing and service industries within the framework of a free market. It works closely with its partners in government, business, tertiary education institutions and industrial support organisations to provide the necessary physical, technological and human infrastructure, promote quality and productivity improvement, encourage applied research and development, monitor developments in markets and technologies, attract inward investment in Hong Kong industries, and support the development of small and medium enterprises.