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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city

Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)

Medical Services

Liberalisation Measures under CEPA

The Agreement on Trade in Services covers and consolidates commitments relating to liberalisation of trade in services provided in CEPA and its Supplements and also the Agreement between the Mainland and Hong Kong on Achieving Basic Liberalisation of Trade in Services in Guangdong.  
 
Agreement on Trade in Services
Liberalisation Measures under Cross-border Services (Positive List)
Sectors or
Sub-sectors
  • 1. Business services
    • A. Professional services
      • h. Medical and dental services (CPC9312)
      • j. Services provided by midwives, nurses, physiotherapists and para-medical personnel (CPC93191)
      • Including Pharmaceutical services
  • 8. Health related services and social services (excluding those listed in the professional services)
    •  A. Hospital services(CPC9311)
    •  B. Other human health services
    •      Hospital services (CPC9311)
           Convalescent hospital services
Specific
commitments
  1. Statutory healthcare professionals who are registered to practise in Hong Kong are allowed to provide short-term services in the Mainland.
  2. The maximum duration of the short-term practice is three years. On expiry, new application procedures should be made for renewing the short-term practice.
  3. Hong Kong permanent residents who are legally eligible to practise western medicine, dentistry and Chinese medicine in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are not required to sit the Mainland's qualification examination for the purpose of short-term practice in the Mainland.
  4. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents, who have acquired a medicine degree or above from the University of Hong Kong, or the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and who have completed one-year internship in Hong Kong and are legally eligible to practise in Hong Kong, to sit the Mainland's qualification examination. A "medical practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  5. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who have acquired a dental degree or above from the University of Hong Kong and who are legally eligible to practise in Hong Kong and have been practising for more than one year to sit the Mainland's qualification examination. A "medical (dental) practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  6. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents in possession of a medicine degree or above of the Mainland to sit the Mainland's qualification examination after they have completed one-year uninterrupted internship under the supervision of a practising doctor in a tier 3 (tertiary) hospital and passed an assessment, or after they have passed the Hong Kong qualification examination and completed one-year internship and become legally eligible to practise in Hong Kong.  A "medical practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  7. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents in possession of a dental degree or above of the Mainland to sit the Mainland's dental qualification examination after they have completed one-year uninterrupted internship under the supervision of a practising dentist in a tier 3 (tertiary) hospital and passed an assessment, or after they have become legally eligible to practise through examination in Hong Kong and have been practising in Hong Kong for more than one year.  A "medical (dental) practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  8. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who have acquired a Chinese medicine degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, or the Hong Kong Baptist University, or the University of Hong Kong and are legally eligible to practise in Hong Kong to sit the Mainland's qualification examination on the condition that they have completed one-year internship in the Mainland and passed an assessment in accordance with the relevant requirements, or that they have been practising in Hong Kong for more than one year. A "medical (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  9. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who are in possession of a Chinese medicine higher degree from a full-time tertiary institution approved by the Education Administration Department of the Mainland State Council to sit the Mainland's medical qualification examination after they have become legally eligible to practise in Hong Kong through the Chinese medicine qualification examination and have been practising for more than one year. They may also sit the Mainland's medical qualification examination after they have completed one-year internship in the Mainland and passed an assessment in accordance with the relevant requirements. A "medical (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  10. The categories of medical qualification examinations that Hong Kong permanent residents may apply to sit are clinical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and dental medicine.
  11. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who are legally eligible to practise western medicine and dentistry in Hong Kong to sit the Mainland's medical qualification examination (excluding Chinese medicine practitioners). A "medical practitioner's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  12. Qualified Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship are allowed to apply for and obtain the Mainland's "medical practitioner's qualification certificates" through accreditation.
  13. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who are licensed Hong Kong pharmacists and who fulfil the application criteria under the Mainland's Provisional Regulations on Licensed Pharmacists Qualification System (No. 34[1999] of the State Food & Drug Administration) to sit the Mainland's licensed pharmacists qualification examination. A "licensed pharmacist's qualification certificate" of the Mainland will be issued to those who pass the examination.
  14. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents who are licensed Hong Kong pharmacists, after obtaining the "licensed pharmacist's qualification certificate", to register in accordance with requirements under the Mainland's Provisional Mechanism for Licensed Pharmacists Registration Management (No. 156[2000] of the State Food and Drug Administration) and under other relevant documents.
  15. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents to apply for registration as Mainland practising pharmacists in accordance with the relevant Mainland's regulations.
  16. To allow Hong Kong service suppliers to provide, in the mode of cross-border supply, services classified under this sector or sub-sector in the Mainland.
  17. To allow contractual service providers employed by Hong Kong service suppliers, in the mode of movement of natural persons, to provide services under this sector or sub-sector in the Mainland.
   
Sectors or 
Sub-sectors
1. Business services

  A. Professional services

    i. Veterinary services (CPC932)
Specific
commitments
To allow Hong Kong residents who obtained the qualification as national practising Licensed Veterinarians to practise in the Mainland.
Reserved Restrictive Measures under Commercial Presence (Negative List)
Sector
  • 1. Business services
Sub-sector
    • A. Professional Services
      • h. Medical and dental services   (CPC9312)
Obligations concerned
National Treatment
Reserved Restrictive
Measures
Commercial Presence
 
Applications for setting up medical institutions shall be approved by and registered with the Health Commission at provincial level in accordance with the Mainland regulations.
 
Sector
  • 1. Business services
Sub-sector
    • A. Professional Services
      • i. Veterinary services (CPC932)
Obligations
concerned
National Treatment
Reserved
Restrictive
Measures
Commercial Presence

Apply national treatment.
 
Sector
  • 1. Business services
Sub-sector
    • A. Professional Services
      • j. Services provided by midwives, nurses, physiotherapists  and para-medical personnel (CPC93191)
Obligations concerned
National Treatment
Reserved Restrictive
Measures
Commercial Presence

No commitment1.
 
Sector
  • 8. Health Related and Social Services
Sub-sector
    • A. Hospital services (CPC9311)
Obligations concerned
National Treatment
Reserved Restrictive
Measures
Commercial Presence
 
Applications for setting up medical institutions shall be approved by and registered with the Health Commission at provincial level in accordance with the Mainland's regulations.
 
Sector
  • 8. Health Related and Social Services
Sub-sector
    • B. Other Human Health Services (CPC93192,93193,93199)
Obligations concerned
National Treatment
Reserved Restrictive
Measures
Commercial Presence
 
Not to launch services on genetic information, blood collection, pathological data and other services that may endanger public health and safety.

1 The operating mode in the form of commercial presence for this sector (sub-sector) has not yet existed in the Mainland.

For details about the cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese medicinal products industry under the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation (Ecotech Agreement), please refer to the Ecotech Agreement.