ENG-2007 — Page 155

Commerce and Industry 111

opportunity for Hong Kong businesses to gain greater access to the Mainland market, the various preferential treatments under CEPA also enhance the attractiveness of Hong Kong to overseas investors. Hong Kong's external trade and intermediary services have benefited from the rapid economic development of the Mainland. In addition, Hong Kong also serves as a springboard for Mainland enterprises to reach out to the global market.

The Government is committed to helping the business community tap the Mainland market, with emphasis on the opportunities brought about by CEPA. It maintains close liaison with the Mainland authorities at different levels through various government bureaux and departments, the Beijing Office of the HKSAR Government, and the three Hong Kong ETOS on the Mainland and quasi-government bodies like the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) to ensure the smooth implementation of CEPA. Regular high-level communication is also achieved through mechanisms such as the Hong Kong/Guangdong Cooperation Joint Conference and the CEPA Joint Steering Committee.

Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements

To assure overseas investors that their investments in Hong Kong are adequately protected, and to enable Hong Kong investors to enjoy similar protection overseas, Hong Kong has concluded investment promotion and protection agreements (IPPAs) with 15 economies. In addition, Hong Kong initialled an IPPA text with Bahrain and Kuwait in 2005 and 2006 respectively, and concluded negotiation with Finland in 2007.

Trade in Textiles

The global elimination of textiles quotas since January 1, 2005 has helped Hong Kong's import and export trade in textiles by creating an

creating an environment that encourages it to continue to leverage its expertise and immense potential to develop into a world-class logistics and sourcing hub for textiles. At the same time, Hong Kong continues to maintain highly effective origin control measures to prevent abuse and to safeguard the interest of Hong Kong's textiles trade.

Hong Kong continues to join hands with other WTO members and the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau to monitor closely the global textiles trade to ensure that it is fully and truly liberalised, and that it comes under the same multilateral trading discipline of the WTO as other sectors.

In 2007, the Customs and Excise Department carried out 79 808 factory and consignment inspections and 1 110 investigations to combat false declarations about the origin and value of goods and illegal transhipment of textiles. The department also conducted 1 090 'blitz' check operations on textile consignments at various import and export control points. It successfully prosecuted 672 companies and individual offenders, resulting in the imposition of fines amounting to $11.13 million. It operates a monetary reward scheme to elicit information on textiles origin fraud.