The Civil Service College (CSC) today (May 31) held a thematic briefing session on "International Landscape and China's Foreign Relations in 2024" jointly with the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (OCMFA) in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The briefing was delivered by the OCMFA's Commissioner, Mr Cui Jianchun. It was attended by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, and over 400 senior officials, including Secretaries of Departments, Directors of Bureaux, Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, and other senior directorate officers of the HKSAR Government. This session also heralds the series of talks on the country's foreign affairs to be run this year.
Mr Lee delivered the opening remarks at the session. He expressed gratitude to Mr Cui's attendance at the session to give an analysis on the intricate and grave international political and economic situation and national foreign strategies, which enabled the HKSAR Government to better support the country in coping with the environment of international competition, and concurrently contribute to the country's high-quality development.
Mr Lee pointed out the intensifying geopolitical tensions have an impact on the global economy and international trade. Hong Kong is an externally oriented economy with distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world under the "one country, two systems" principle. It has been playing its role as a "super connector" and "super value-adder" and has consistently consolidated and enhanced Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre, shipping centre and trade centre. He said he hopes the HKSAR government officials would have a better understanding of the current international political and economic environment through this briefing session, which would be conducive to the formulation and implementation of various related policies, and would help Hong Kong maintain its advantages in internationalisation, further widen its international network and strengthen collaboration with other countries, so as to further contribute to the enhancement of Hong Kong's global competitiveness.
The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, said during the session that civil servants of the HKSAR must have an accurate understanding of the country's current development situation and future development directions, fully and faithfully implement the "one country, two systems" principle, and support the HKSAR Government's full implementation of "patriots administering Hong Kong". The CSC will continue to enhance training to strengthen civil servants' sense of patriotism, foster their forming of holistic views, and broaden their international perspectives. This will better equip the civil service to effectively complement the Government in playing Hong Kong's role as the gateway between the country and the world, and telling the world good stories of the country and the successful implementation of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong.
The CSC will continue to strengthen collaboration with the OCMFA and run a series of talks on the country's foreign affairs in 2024, which began with today's thematic briefing session that will be followed by talks on topics such as the latest developments of multilateral diplomacy, China-Middle East relations, and telling good stories of China. Since the end of 2021, the CSC has organised 16 talks under this series, which have been well received by colleagues. Nearly 4 000 directorate and senior-level civil servants have attended the talks so far.
Follow this news feed: East Asia