Chief Executive John Lee, met the Mayor of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, Qin Weizhong, today (Feb. 22) to exchange views on deepening Hong Kong's cooperation with Shenzhen. Also attending the meeting were the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, Carol Yip.
Lee welcomed Qin's visit to Hong Kong with his delegation, noting that Qin will co-chair the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Co-operation Meeting with the Chief Secretary for Administration, Chan Kwok-ki, this afternoon. Lee said that in a video conference held in September last year, Hong Kong and Shenzhen agreed to set up 19 working groups to promote collaboration in a wide range of key areas including the Northern Metropolis, innovation and technology, finance, commerce and trade, youth employment and entrepreneurship, and Qianhai, under the principles of close co-operation, complementarity and mutual benefits. These working groups are proactively working with their Mainland counterparts to push forward various cooperation projects and give full play to the leading role and knock-on effect of Hong Kong and Shenzhen as the core engines for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Lee said that since the full resumption of travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland, people-to-people exchanges between Hong Kong and Shenzhen have grown rapidly, and various economic activities and exchanges of business and tourism have been enlivened, benefitting different sectors and members of the public in Hong Kong. He thanked the Shenzhen Municipal Government for its strong support to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government in implementing the resumption and working together to ensure the smooth and safe operation of various boundary control points.
Lee pointed out that as Hong Kong is fully open to the Mainland and overseas, Hong Kong will focus on pursuing economic development, and the multifaceted cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen will help promote the economic development of the two places. Hong Kong and Shenzhen have always maintained close financial cooperation. The Shenzhen Municipal Government is the first Mainland municipal government to make use of Hong Kong's financing platform and professional services for bond issuance, which fully demonstrates Hong Kong's status as the global offshore Renminbi (RMB) business hub, as supported by the National 14th Five-Year Plan. He welcomes the Shenzhen Municipal Government and Shenzhen's quality enterprises to continue to issue offshore RMB bonds in Hong Kong, and looks forward to continuing to strengthen cooperation in the field of financial services between the two sides.
He looks forward to leading a delegation to visit Shenzhen tomorrow (February 23), and to meet with leaders of Shenzhen and further exchange views on comprehensively deepening cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and jointly promote high-quality development in the GBA.
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