On July 29, the Supplementary Agreement V of the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (hereafter referred to as the Supplementary Agreement V) is signed in Hong Kong. The supplementary agreement of Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) this time includes the content of cooperation of IPR protection, adding “brand cooperation” a new cooperation field of trade and investment facilitation.

The Supplementary Agreement V clarifies that in order to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in trademark realm, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and IP Department of Hong Kong SAR has established a trademark coordination group as the fixed bilateral liaison mechanism to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as trademark registration business and trademark protection between the two regions.

The Supplementary Agreement V points out that both sides realize that brand cooperation is of important significance in promoting economic development and encouraging economic and trade exchanges between Chinese mainland and Hong Kong SAR. Both sides agree to strengthen cooperation in brand sector and establish related working groups under the guidance and coordination of a joint steering commission. They agree to strengthen exchanges and communications in brand sector between the two regions, share information of law and regulation formulation and implementation in brand protection, intensify cooperation in areas such as training, inspection and publication, and deepen brand promotion in the two regions through various platforms such as websites, exhibitions and symposiums.

The Supplementary Agreement V further opens Chinese mainland market to Hong Kong on the basis of CEPA and the previous four supplementary agreements. A total of 34 measures of opening Chinese mainland market to Hong Kong in the three areas of service industry, trade and investment facilitation and mutual recognition of professional qualification lift the economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong into a new height.

The Supplementary Agreement V is signed by Jiang Zengwei Vice Minister of Commerce and John Tsang Chun-wah, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR, which will be formally carried out on January 1, 2009.

Statistics show that the total trade volume between the mainland and Hong Kong in the first six months this year hits 97 billion USD, a year-on-year growth of 8.0 percent. The mainland attracts 6,900 Hong Kong direct investment projects with actual utilization of Hong Kong capital of 23.39 billion USD.