CRI听力:Authorities to Crack Down on Parallel Trade Between HK and Mainland

Zhang Mao, minister of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, says the so-called "courier" smugglers, or parallel traders, have disrupted the markets in Hong Kong.

Parallel traders carry small amount of products brought in Hong Kong and resell them at a higher prices on the mainland.

To evade customs duties, they usually go back and forth between Hong Kong and the mainland a few times a day.

Zhang Mao says they've been trying to take steps to fight this.

"The bulk buying these smugglers do makes life for Hong Kong residents inconvenient, narrows the profits for legally-operating importers and creates disorder in the mainland market. Led by the national anti-smuggling office, the SAIC and other departments are cracking down, with severe punishment being handed down for people caught doing this. A number of local governments are also moving to step-up supervision."

Authorities in both the mainland and Hong Kong have already brought in a series of campaigns to try to crack down on parallel traders.

As of the end of last year, over 20 parallel trading groups were broken up.

Some 33-thousand individual parallel traders have been detained by customs officials in Shenzhen over the past four years.

Among them, around two-thirds of them are Hong Kong residents.

Meanwhile, in terms of Hong Kong investment in the mainland, Zhang Mao says a series of reforms the SAIC brought in last year has helped more Hong Kong companies start up business on the mainland.

"So far, there have been 10,633 Hong Kong companies registered on the mainland since the beginning of the reform program, which is a 9.65 percent rise year on year. The registered capital reached 127.73 billion yuan, up 27.71 percent year on year."

The Minister says since last year, the authorities have been trying to cut red tape and simplify the approval procedures for business owners hoping to establish operations on the mainland.

"It shows that we have the same support and opening policies for Hong Kong firms to invest and start businesses that we do for companies registered in the mainland. I think the policies will provide even more convenience for investors from Hong Kong to start businesses on the mainland as we continue to deepen our reforms."

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.