The Chinese Central Government has been working on adapting relevant laws and regulations and will adopt concrete measures to put into practice the commitments it has made in a newly signed pact with the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), a senior official said Friday.

China's Vice Minister of Commerce An Min made the remarks at a joint press conference with Macao's Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen, who had earlier inked the Mainland/ Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).

An noted that a joint committee will be set up between the two sides to oversee the implementation of the economic pact.

Tam said that the majority of the Macao enterprises are familiar with mainland's laws and regulations, and the exception of trade tariff on Macao-made products to enter the mainland is expected to bring Macao a yearly income of 10 million patacas (US$1.25 million), and help Macao enterprises to further explore the huge market of the mainland, which has a population of 1.3 billion.

An noted that consultation on CEPA began on June 20. During the four-month time, the two sides have reached a consensus on three major areas of CEPA, namely trade in goods, trade in services and trade and investment facilitation.

An pointed out that both Hong Kong and Macao, two of China's special administrative regions, are free economies with many similarities, adding that the Central Government has granted them similar CEPA treatment, which has also taken into consideration of the differences between the two.

The pact was designed to eliminate the institutional obstacles in economic and trade cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Macao, and constitutes a new milestone in bilateral cooperation, according to the vice minister.

Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong and Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Edmund Ho Hau Wah witnessed the signing ceremony of the Mainland/Macao CEPA and its six annexes Friday afternoon.

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