Trade between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong continues to grow rapidly after the implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement.

Figures from the Ministry of Commerce show trade between the mainland and Hong Kong in the first ten months of this year surpassed last year's total, reaching more than 88.5 billion US dollars, a 27 percent increase over the same period of last year.

The mainland's actual utilization of capital from Hong Kong also increased by over ten percent during the same period.

This has made Hong Kong the biggest capital source for the mainland, and placed the mainland as Hong Kong's biggest overseas project investor.

(CRI.com December 15, 2004)