Macao's economy boosted by CEPA

Chinese commerce officials say economic ties between the mainland and the Macao Special Administrative Region are significantly stronger under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement. Macao has benefited greatly since the CEPA was signed in 2003.

For cargo trade, the mainland has so far imported more than 10 million US dollars worth of zero-tariff goods from Macao. For the service industry, Macao has issued more than 360 licenses for local service providers to operate business in the mainland, ranging from logistics, telecoms, retailing and advertising.

For the financial sector, Macao's banks were allowed to operate yuan deposit and exchange businesses from February 2004. So far, total Renminbi deposit at Macao's banking system has reached 1.7 billion yuan. And at the end of 2008, the central government carried out various favorable policies to help Macao tackle the impact of the global financial crisis.