The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Ms Louise Ho, yesterday (July 3) led 10 Customs officers and 50 members of "Customs YES" to Sichuan to learn about the national cultural heritage conservation works.
Ms Ho and the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Administrator of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, Mr Li Qun, yesterday attended the opening ceremony of the 2nd Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao Course on Capacity Building to Prevent Illegal Trafficking of Cultural Heritage, which was jointly organised by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and Hong Kong Customs.
A total of 36 enforcement and cultural heritage conservation officers from the three places, including 10 Hong Kong Customs officers and officers from the Chengdu Customs District, the Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Hong Kong Development Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Macao Customs Service, the Macao Judiciary Police, the Macao Public Security Police Force and the Macao Cultural Affairs Bureau, participated in the five-day course. The participating Hong Kong Customs officers will become members of the National Cultural Heritage Identification Team of the department, shouldering the responsibilities for combating the trafficking of national cultural heritage and providing support to other frontline officers in the identification and handling of national cultural heritage.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Ms Ho encouraged the officers to treasure the invaluable learning opportunity, fully devote themselves, and get well prepared to accomplish the mission of protecting national cultural heritage.
On the same day, Ms Ho led 50 "Customs YES" members on a visit to the Sichuan University Museum, where they joined a lacquer painting workshop of the "Sun and Immortal Birds". She encouraged the members to learn about the profound and precious history of the country and to preserve the excellent Chinese culture through experiencing traditional craftsmanship.
Ms Ho today (July 4) led the delegation of "Customs YES" to attend the opening ceremony of the 2nd Sichuan-Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan Youth Exchange and Cooperation Week and launch ceremony of "Thousands of Hong Kong Youth Exploring Sichuan". In her speech, Ms Ho encouraged the participants to embrace the ideals and aspirations of "contributing to the prosperity of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation", and to utilise their strengths to become a new impetus for promoting national development and integration among the four places.
During her visit, Ms Ho also paid a courtesy call to the Chengdu Customs District to strengthen co-operation. Moreover, she visited Chengdu Tianfu International Airport and met with the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Chengdu, Mr Enoch Yuen.
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