Hong Kong and Germany signed on Tuesday a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in information and communications technology, a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government release said.

The MOU was signed in Berlin by Werner Muller, federal minister of economics and technology, representing the Federal Republic of Germany, and Carrie Yau, secretary for information technology and broadcasting, representing the Hong Kong SAR government.

The MOU covers an extensive range of cooperative activities, ranging from the sharing of policy and regulatory information and commercial and academic exchanges to business, investment and technology partnerships.

Yau welcomed the MOU for significantly strengthening the Hong Kong-German relationship. She said, "Through our concerted efforts, I am confident that the MOU will benefit the information and communications technology industries of both sides."

Yau said Hong Kong's IT and telecommunications companies, with their knowledge of the mainland market, could be valuable partners for their German counterparts to explore the huge Mainland market.

Germany is Hong Kong's seventh largest trading partner in the world and the largest in Europe. There are some 500 German companies in Hong Kong, and more than 150 of them have established regional headquarters or regional offices there.

The Hong Kong SAR government has entered into similar arrangements on IT cooperation with seven other countries since May 1998, including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Finland, India, Israel and the Republic of Korea.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2002)