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File:CR TID/CEPA 7/7 20 May 2004 Dear Sirs,
Notice to Service Suppliers No. 3/2004 Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) Certificate of Hong Kong Service Supplier - I. Introduction 2. In addition, after in-depth deliberation, the Government of the HKSAR and the Central People's Government (CPG) have agreed to provide, in compliance with the principles of CEPA, flexible treatments to applications for Certificate of HKSS which involve group of companies. According to the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32) of the HKSAR, "group of companies" means any 2 or more companies or bodies corporate one of which is the holding company of the other or others. Details of the above flexible treatments are set out in paragraphs 6 and 7 below. II. Streamlining Documentation Requirements 3. According to the application procedures stipulated in Notice to Service Suppliers No. 2/2003, when applying to TID for Certificate of HKSS, an applicant has to submit a duly completed application form and an attested copy of Statutory Declaration, as well as the required supporting documents and information as laid down in Appendix 5 to the Notice to Service Supplies No. 2/2003, including: i. sector-specific supporting documents and information; and ii. general documents and information applicable to all service sectors (except legal services sector) covered by CEPA. 4. Effective from the date of issue of this Notice, TID will streamline the general documentation requirements as mentioned in paragraph 3 (ii) above, which include: i. accepting both the original and copy of Extract of Information on the Register of Businesses of the applicant issued by the Business Registration Office of the Inland Revenue Department of the HKSAR, but the copy has to be certified by a Designated Professional (Note 2); ii. accepting both the original and copy of the annual reports or audited financial statements of the applicant, but the copies have to be certified by a Designated Professional; iii. an applicant is no longer required to provide the original of a written report issued by a Designated Professional on the ratio of its employees. Nevertheless, the applicant is still required to submit copy of documents, certified by a Designated Professional, to substantiate the employment of staff by the applicant for the substantive business operations in Hong Kong in respect of the relevant services; and iv. an applicant is no longer required to provide the original of a written report issued by a Designated Professional on business premises. Nevertheless, the applicant is still required to submit copy of documents, certified by a Designated Professional, to substantiate that the applicant has owned or rented business premises in 5. The streamlined requirements on general documents and information in support of the application for Certificate of HKSS have been set out in Appendix 1 of this Notice. TID has also made corresponding revisions to the application form for Certificate of HKSS and the Statutory Declaration. With effect from the date of issue of this Notice, applicant should follow the application procedures as set out in paragraphs 8 to 13 of the Notice to Service Suppliers No. 2/2003 and submit the following documents to TID: i. a duly completed application form (revised) for Certificate of HKSS [Form TID 102 (Rev. 5/2004)] (a proforma at Appendix 2 of this Notice, which can also be downloaded from TID's homepage: http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/cepa/). An application form may cover more than one service sector; ii. a copy of Statutory Declaration attested by an attesting officer recognized by the Mainland (i.e. China Appointed Attesting Officer (Note 2)). A proforma (in revised format) of the Statutory Declaration in Chinese is set out in Appendix 3A of this Notice. Non-Chinese speakers requiring interpretation of the content of the declaration should use the proforma in Appendix 3B (also in Chinese). These two proforma can also be downloaded from TID's homepage: http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/cepa/; iii. supporting documents for individual service sectors as detailed in Part (I) of Appendix 5 of the Notice to Service Suppliers No. 2/2003. However, the general supporting documents and information as required therein have been replaced, with effect from the date of issue of this Notice, by the requirements as set out in Appendix 1 of this Notice. III. Application Procedures In Relation to Group of Companies 6. After detailed consideration, the Government of the HKSAR and the CPG have both agreed that for applicants, which have engaged in substantive business operations in Hong Kong in the form of group of companies as defined in the Companies Ordinance of the HKSAR (see paragraph 2 above) and which fulfill the requirements as stated in this Notice, should be eligible to apply for provision of the relevant services in the Mainland with the preferential treatments under CEPA. In this regard, both sides have agreed to apply the following flexible treatments, which are made according to the requirements of CEPA, to applications for Certificate of HKSS involving group of companies: i. the applicants have to be incorporated or established pursuant to the Companies Ordinance or other relevant laws of the HKSAR, and have obtained a valid Business Registration Certificate for 3 (or 5) years (Note 3) or more prior to the date of submission of the applications; ii. if required by law, the applicants or their wholly owned subsidiaries (Note 4) should have obtained the licences or permits for providing services concerned; iii. the applicants or their wholly owned subsidiaries are engaging and have engaged in substantive business operations in Hong Kong for 3 (or 5) consecutive years or more prior to the date of submission of the applications; the nature and scope of the services provided by them in Hong Kong should encompass the nature and scope of the services the applicants intend to provide in the Mainland; during the period of substantive business operations in Hong Kong, they should have paid profits tax in accordance with the law; iv. if the applicants fulfill the criteria set out in point (iii) above by their wholly owned subsidiaries, the applicants should prove that, in the required years of operation as stipulated in Article 3 of Annex 5 to CPEA during which that wholly owned subsidiaries have engaged in substantive business operations in Hong Kong, the applicants have maintained holding and subsidiary relation with that wholly owned subsidiaries during that period; v. if the business premises used by the applicants or their wholly owned subsidiaries for their substantive business operations in Hong Kong have not been owned or rented by them, the owners or tenants of that business premises should be either the holding companies or subsidiaries (Note 5)of the groups of companies to which the applicants belong, and that the owners / tenants have given permission to the applicants or their wholly owned subsidiaries to use that business premises to engage in substantive business operations; and vi. if the staff engaged in the substantive business operations in 7. If applicants wish to make use of the flexible treatments set out in paragraph 6 above to apply for the Certificate of HKSS, they should follow the requirements set out in paragraph 5 above and submit an application form for the Certificate of HKSS [Form TID 102 (Rev. 5/2004)], an attested copy of Statutory Declaration, and the required supporting documents. Moreover, they should also submit an Supplementary Form for Group of Companies Applying for Certificate of HKSS (Form TID IV. Others 8. Apart from that related to the streamlined requirements on general documentation and information as well as the flexible treatments for applications involving group of companies stipulated in this Notice, all other requirements set out in Notice to Service Suppliers No. 2/2003 are still valid. V. Enquiries 9. If you have any enquiries about the application procedures or details set out in this Notice, please contact the Hong Kong Service Supplier Certification Section of TID at: Address: 11/F, Trade and Yours faithfully,
(Miss Kelly CHENG) for Director-General of Trade and Industry Note: In case of discrepancies between the English and Chinese texts of this circular, the Chinese text shall for all purposes be conclusive. (Note 1) : (Note 2) : Professionals specified by TID pursuant to Article i. certified public accountants of ii. practising lawyers in For applications covering legal services, the Designated Professionals refer to item (ii) above only. (Note 3) : Please refer to Article 3 of Annex 5 to CEPA in relation to the years of operation required for the respective service sectors. (Note 4) : In accordance with the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32) of the HKSAR, a body corporate shall be deemed to be the wholly owned subsidiary of the applicant if it has no members except the applicant and the applicant's wholly owned subsidiaries and its or their nominees. (Note 5) : In this Notice, the definition of holding companies and subsidiaries are the same as that in Section 2 of the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32) of the HKSAR. |
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