Macao granted better market access to Chinese mainland amid financial crisis

The SAR's tourism is one area that benefited the most from the signing of CEPA, as over 30 million mainland visitor arrivals traveling under the "individual visit scheme", a visa arrangement for residents in major mainland cities to make trips to the SAR, have been logged since CEPA took effect in 2004. The "individual visit scheme" is part of the measures included in CEPA.

Figures from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the SAR's visitor arrivals totaled 22.91 million last year, with the majority of visitors came from the mainland at 11.6 million, of which 57 percent were visitors traveling under the "individual visit scheme".

To further boost the SAR's tourism, mainland residents traveling in group tours to Taiwan will be allowed to enter Macao SAR in transit, under the newly-signed Supplement VI, despite the fact that the mainland authorities has previously tightened the visa arrangement for residents directly traveling to Macao, limiting their trips to the SAR in a year.

The Supplement VI provides more favorable conditions for the SAR to diversify its economy while giving better support for the healthy and sustainable development of local economy, said Tam Pak Yuen after signing the latest supplementary protocol on Monday.

Aside from the tourism sector, the new measures included in the Supplement VI, which will take effect on Oct. 1, 2009, mainly concern industries of MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition), and medical services.