Mainland opens human resource market wider to HK, Macao service providers

BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Service providers from Hong Kong and Macao are to be granted full access to the mainland's human resource market as the central government allows them to set up "private human resource agencies" as of next January, according to a recent regulation amendment,

The amendment to a 2003 regulation on joint-venture personnel affairs agencies, jointly released by the ministries of personnel and commerce and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, has "further eliminated restrictions of shareholding ratio by companies of the two special administrative regions," according to a Ministry of Personnel (MOP) spokesman.

"It has been the first time that the mainland's human resource sector has allowed the establishment of such personnel agencies under private ownership," the spokesman said.

He said the amendment, a concrete step toward a full implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed by Hong Kong and Macao with the Mainland, would "greatly promote the integration and sharing of human resources between the mainland and the two regions".

The MOP will soon issue measures on setting up private personnel affairs agencies by Hong Kong and Macao service providers to facilitate the implementation of the amendment.

According to the 2003 regulation, overseas enterprises, including those from Hong Kong and Macao, engaging in human resource services on the mainland, had to set up joint ventures with a Chinese partner with shares "no more than 49 percent".

The regulation was revised in 2005, extending the amount of shares held by Hong Kong and Macao enterprises to "no more than 70 percent".