Hong Kong indications very first procedure to change ASEAN – Hong Kong financial investment arrangement (with image)
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The First Protocol to Amend the Investment Agreement (IA) in between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Hong Kong (the Protocol) was signed today (September 20) to trigger the pertinent arrangements of the IA to allow Hong Kong business to delight in treatments no less beneficial than those accorded to regional or foreign business in the 10 ASEAN member states.
The Protocol was signed in between the Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Dr Bernard Chan; the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines, Ms Ma. Cristina A. Roque; and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Thailand, Mrs Suphajee Suthumpun, in Manila, the Philippines, before the 10th ASEAN Economic Ministers – Hong Kong, China Consultation cochaired by Hong Kong and the Philippines as the ASEAN Chair this year.
The Protocol primarily includes the schedules of bookings into the IA to provide result to Article 3 (National Treatment) and Article 4 (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment) of the IA. These posts supply that a celebration will accord other celebrations’ business and their financial investments non-discriminatory treatment, other than for those procedures scheduled in the schedules. The finalizing of the Protocol is set to produce legal certainty, improving the financial investment environment and developing more financial investment circulations.
A spokesperson for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau stated, “ASEAN is Hong Kong’s essential financial investment partner and has actually been our third-largest location of external direct financial investment for 4 successive years, with a stock of $671.2 billion. Our prospering financial investment relations have actually been enhanced by the IA which has actually enhanced Hong Kong’s position as a global financial investment center.
“We are confident that the signing of the Protocol and its subsequent implementation will drive steady growth in Hong Kong’s economic, trade and investment relations with the ASEAN region. We will work side by side with our ASEAN partners to strive for further economic development and investment growth in the region,” the spokesperson included.
Under the sell services chapter of the open market contract (FTA) in between Hong Kong and the 10 ASEAN member states, nationwide treatment is devoted for services and services providers for defined sectors, consisting of through an industrial existence. Matching the FTA, the IA will accord business and their financial investments in non-services sectors nationwide treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment, after bookings integrated by the Protocol into the IA participate in force.
Apart from non-discriminatory treatment, the IA offers reasonable and fair treatment of financial investments, physical security and security of financial investments, and the guarantee of the totally free transfer of financial investments and returns. In case of expropriation or financial investment loss owing to war, armed dispute or a comparable occasion, payment will be offered according to the predetermined requirement as defined under the IA.
The text of the Protocol will be published onto the Trade and Industry Department’s site after all celebrations have actually finished signing the Protocol. Hong Kong and the 10 ASEAN member states will continue to work carefully to cause the early application of the Protocol, so that Hong Kong business might profit as quickly as possible.
The 10 ASEAN member states worried are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. An extension of the FTA and IA to Timor-Leste, the 11th member state of ASEAN, is pending the internal treatments of ASEAN.