CE meets Mayor of Shanghai (with photo)

     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, met the Mayor of Shanghai, Mr Ying Yong, at Government House this evening (August 22).

     Mrs Lam welcomed Mr Ying's visit to Hong Kong with his delegation to attend the 4th Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference to be held on August 24. She said Hong Kong and Shanghai have been enjoying a close relationship which has much room for further development, and for this reason she visited Shanghai soon after her assumption of office last year, meeting with the then Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Mr Han Zheng, and Mr Ying. Mrs Lam said she was very pleased that the two sides agreed to hold the Fourth Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference in Hong Kong at the meeting.

     Mrs Lam said that the governments of the two sides have done a lot of work for the conference in the past months. She expressed the belief that the two sides would reach consensus to strengthen co-operation in various areas at the meeting and sign a number of agreements covering areas including legal services, education, commerce and trade, innovation and technology (I&T), culture and finance after the meeting.  On I&T, as the leading group for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area led by the Vice Premier of the State Council, Mr Han Zheng, confirmed the support by the Central Government for the establishment of an international I&T hub in the Bay Area, Mrs Lam expressed the hope to strengthen collaboration with Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, which are advancing rapidly on I&T development, from the perspective of regional development to contribute together to the building of an innovation-oriented country.

     Noting that Mr Ying would also attend a youth forum and visit waste treatment and elderly care facilities during his stay in Hong Kong, she said she hopes that Mr Ying would better understand Hong Kong's latest developments in various aspects, so that more room would be explored for co-operation and exchanges between Hong Kong and Shanghai in the future.