The Government's Role
95. The Government strives to expand our market coverage to create business opportunities for enterprises. In the past year, we continued to expand our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement networks to provide protection for Hong Kong businesses to explore markets and invest in outside markets, and for foreign businesses to do the same in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has signed three FTAs with 12 economies since this term of Government took office. Our FTA negotiations with Australia and the Maldives were concluded last year. Our discussions with the UK on the proposals for closer economic ties are underway. We are exploring an FTA with the four members of the Pacific Alliance (namely Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru). We also plan to seek accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership after completion of negotiations between ASEAN and relevant economies.
96. We have also been actively expanding our network of Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements (CDTAs) to enhance our business environment and draw in investment. Taking into account the CDTAs concluded with India and Finland last year, we have already signed CDTAs with 40 tax jurisdictions, of which 13 are among Hong Kong's major trading partners and are accounting for 73 per cent of our total value of trade in 2017. Our target is to bring the total number of our CDTAs to 50 in the next few years.
97. The Government is also committed to expanding its Economic and Trade Office (ETO) network to strengthen external promotion, thereby exploring new business opportunities for Hong Kong enterprises. At present, the Government has two ETOs in ASEAN, one in Jakarta and the other in Singapore. With the establishment of the Bangkok ETO, we will forge stronger economic and trade ties with ASEAN. We are making good progress in our negotiations with the United Arab Emirates government to set up the Dubai ETO. We will also continue our discussion with the governments of India, Korea and Russia on the detailed arrangements for setting up ETOs in their territories.
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