A total of 152 candidates, including 13 Taiwan residents, are taking part in a two-day national judicial examination in Hong Kong today and tomorrow.

This is the fourth year such exam centres have been set up in Hong Kong. Taiwan residents are allowed to sit for the exam for the first time in the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

The exam, organised by the Ministry of Justice's National Judicial Examination Centre, is held in different parts of the Mainland at the same time.

Officials of the ministry and the Department of Justice toured the centres at Kowloon Technical College and the Hong Kong Examination & Assessment Authority's examination centre in Wan Chai this morning and were satisfied with the arrangements.

Under the Mainland & Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or CEPA, Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship can sit for the exam. They will be granted a restricted right to practise on the Mainland upon passing.