- Administration of general economic and commercial affairs and services, including general foreign commercial affairs; formulation and implementation of general economic and commercial policies; liaison among different branches of government and between government and business;

- regulation or support of general economic and commercial activities such as export and import trade as a whole, commodity and equity markets, overall income controls, general trade promotion activities, general regulation of monopolies and other restraints on trade and market entry, etc.; supervision of the banking industry;

- operation or support of institutions dealing with patents, trademarks, copyrights, company registration, weather forecasting, standards, hydrologic surveys, geodesic surveys, etc.;

- grants, loans or subsidies to promote general economic and commercial policies and programmes.