Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, held the third senior officials meeting of the Joint Guidance Committee on the Establishment of Closer Economic and Trade Relations (CEPA), substantively completing a new round of revision consultations on the CEPA Service Trade Agreement, and reaching preliminary consensus on the opening measures of the mainland to Hong Kong's service trade field. New opening-up measures will be introduced for professional service areas that have advantages in Hong Kong and are widely concerned by the industry, such as law, finance, construction and related engineering, audio-visual services, etc., to further facilitate the development of Hong Kong enterprises and professionals in the mainland. According to He Yadong, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, since 2003, the mainland and Hong Kong have signed CEPA and its series of agreements, constructing it as a high-level free trade agreement with the characteristics of "one country, two systems" and in compliance with World Trade Organization rules. Through CEPA, the mainland has fully realized the liberalization of trade in goods and basically achieved the liberalization of trade in services with Hong Kong. In the field of service trade, the mainland has opened up 153 service sectors to Hong Kong, accounting for 95.6% of all 160 service trade sectors of the World Trade Organization. Among them, 69 sectors have achieved national treatment, which not only promotes the development of Hong Kong's professional service industry but also strongly supports Hong Kong professionals to practice in the mainland. (Lai Xin She)