Golden Harvest chairman Raymond Chow, China Star's Charles Heung and Peter Lam of Media Asia are among the high-level delegates joining a networking mission to Beijing next month to discuss co-operation between Hong Kong film-makers and their counterparts on the mainland.

Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), the mission aims to increase the Hong Kong film industry's access to the vast, but largely off-limits, mainland market. Hong Kong films are classed as foreign by China for distribution purposes. However, co-productions with the mainland bypass quota restrictions.

"China remains restrictive on the distribution side, but huge opportunities exist for Hong Kong film-makers in co-production and supplying production services," said TDC services promotion manager, Johnson Yip.

About 40 Hong Kong companies are expected to attend the event, which has been timed to coincide with the Beijing Film Screenings organised by China Film Group Corp (October 15-18). The programme includes visits to private film enterprises, seminars on co-production and overseas distribution, screenings of Hong Kong movies and round table meetings.