A Hong Kong resident takes a photo of the display of national and HKSAR flags on Oct 1, 2022. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)
Hong Kong’s largest political party plans to table 21 motions and proposals at the nation’s two sessions this year to further cross-border collaboration, including promoting the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, strengthening economic and cultural cooperation, and facilitating Hong Kong residents to better embrace national development.
At a press conference held by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) on Sunday, Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the party, said that the upcoming two sessions — the first since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China — are of pivotal importance and mark Hong Kong’s transition from stability to prosperity.
This year’s session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will kick off on March 4, and the session of the National People's Congress (NPC) will begin on March 5.
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Earlier, seven members of the DAB were elected as members of the 14th NPC, while nine others from the party became members of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.
To enable a wider range of Hong Kong people to better understand the mainland situation, the DAB proposes having civil servants in the city serve temporarily in governments on the mainland, and having more Hong Kong youngsters participate in the nation’s poverty alleviation works
The DAB suggested that Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese mainland can accelerate the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in more sectors, associate degrees, and jointly strengthen the training mechanism for technical personnel in both places.
In particular, Lee, who is also a senior accountant, said Hong Kong’s accounting professionals can become partners of mainland accounting partnership firms after passing the nation’s Certified Public Accountant test. Yet, only a few Hong Kong accountants can pass the examination and practice on the mainland because of the differences between the professional qualification tests in the two places.
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The DAB suggested establishing a designated qualification examination for Hong Kong accountants in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), allowing them to practice in the nine mainland cities of GBA after passing the examination. Similar arrangements are currently in place for Hong Kong lawyers.
In terms of promoting cultural exchanges, the DAB proposes simplifying procedures for Hong Kong arts groups to perform in mainland GBA cities and offering more facilitation for them to ship their performance equipment to the mainland.
On the economic side, the party proposes providing a mechanism to allow investors in Hong Kong and the mainland to participate in initial public offerings (IPOs) on the other side of the border, thus promoting interconnection and interoperability between the two markets.
Meanwhile, the DAB suggested GBA cities enhance cooperation in various industries, including green finance, insurance, aviation, agriculture and fisheries, trade and retail industries, intellectual property rights, quality tourism, cross-border e-commerce, jewelry, etc.
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To enable a wider range of Hong Kong people to better understand the mainland situation, the party proposes having civil servants in the city serve temporarily in governments on the mainland, and having more Hong Kong youngsters participate in the nation’s poverty alleviation works.
They also hope large-scale national events can attract more Hong Kong volunteers and the nation’s Spring Festival Gala can include more Hong Kong programs. These steps would all be beneficial to deepening people-to-people exchanges between the two sides and would reinforce Hong Kong people’s bonds with the mainland, the party said.