Director of Environmental Protection led delegation to attend Belt & Road Forum on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in Sri Lanka

Today (July 3), the Director of Environmental Protection (EPD), Dr Samuel Chui, led a delegation of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to attend the "Symposium on Water Technology, Climate Change and Sustainable Development" & "The 9th China-Sri Lanka Joint Workshop on Climate Change and Marine Sustainable Development" under the Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka.

The Symposium, organised by the China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Centre for Water Technology (JRDC), is held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 2 to 3 July.  Its objective is to promote cooperation with Sri Lanka and other Belt and Road countries in tackling various issues, including climate change, marine disaster mitigation, resource management and sustainable development.  At the same time, the HKSAR Government delegation will conduct in-depth exchanges with the participating parties to promote high-quality green development under the Belt and Road Initiative.  The Symposium has invited the Sri Lankan Government, a number of national research organisations and some tertiary institutions to attend, including the Presidential Secretariat of Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Trade and Environment of Sri Lanka, the Central Environmental Authority of Sri Lanka, the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the CAS, as well as representatives of organisations and tertiary institutions from China, the United States, Canada and Pakistan, etc.  The Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr Qi Zhenhong, also attended the event and delivered an opening speech.

Dr Samuel Chui delivered a keynote speech at the Symposium, introducing Hong Kong's overall water quality and water resources management strategies, covering pollution control at source, water quality monitoring, sewage infrastructure planning, seawater flushing, cooling and grey water recycling, as well as successful applications of the bioremediation technology to control water pollution.  To facilitate scientific research and academic applications by the local government and tertiary institutions, Dr Samuel Chui, on behalf of the HKSAR Government, donated to the Sri Lanka side two sets of computer software, "VISJET" - for simulation and visualization of marine discharges developed by the research team of Professor Joseph Lee, President of Macau University of Science and Technology, and an intelligent air simulation platform developed by the EPD's air science team specifically for Sri Lanka.

"The EPD will continue to actively engage partners in the Belt and Road region to leverage Hong Kong's experience and advantages in environmental protection to help them in achieving green and sustainable development," Dr Samuel Chui said.

Yesterday (2 July) morning, the HKSAR Government delegation, including representatives from the EPD, the Water Supplies Department, the Drainage Services Department and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, attended the Water Technology Exchange Forum and had in-depth exchanges with officials from government agencies such as the Central Environment Authority and the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage of Sri Lanka, sharing Hong Kong's successful experience in water resources management, the application of smart-technologies and modelling in water quality management, the implementation of the charging scheme for sewage collection and treatment services following the Polluter Pays Principle, and modern aquaculture technologies.  Representatives from the EPD also shared their experience in bacteriological water quality monitoring for bathing beaches, and provided demonstration training to Sri Lankan technicians on water sample collection, treatment and analysis.

Dr Samuel Chui will go to Kandy tomorrow (July 4) to deliver an opening address at the International Symposium on "Improving Air Quality in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Monitoring, Modelling and Pollution Control" organised by the JRDC.  Representatives from the EPD will also share Hong Kong's successful experience in applying innovation and technology to enhance air quality management.

Dr Samuel Chui said that the visit by the HKSAR Government delegation and the in-depth technical exchanges with experts, scholars and industry stakeholders from Sri Lanka and other participants would manifest the concrete implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on professional staff development signed between the EPD and the Central Environment Authority of Sri Lanka in September last year.  It is conducive to further deepening the partnership established between the two sides to jointly take forward high-quality green development under the Belt and Road Initiative, achieving the goals of environmental protection and sustainable development.