The People's Government of Guangdong Province, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) Government signed the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Emergency Management Co-operation and Greater Bay Area Emergency Response Operation Co-operation Framework Agreement in Hong Kong today (June 14) to strengthen co-operation and exchanges of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao on emergency management and response.
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management Mr Xu Jia'ai and Member of the Office Leadership of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Mr Xiang Bin attended the ceremony. Witnessed by the Executive Vice-Governor of Guangdong Province, Mr Zhang Hu; the Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR, Mr Chan Kwok-ki; and the Secretary for Security of the Macao SAR, Mr Wong Sio-chak, the Director of the Department of Emergency Management of Guangdong Province, Mr Wang Zaihua; the Secretary for Security of the HKSAR, Mr Tang Ping-keung; and the Commissioner General of the Unitary Police Service of the Macao SAR, Mr Leong Man-cheong signed the Framework Agreement on behalf of governments in the three places.
The Framework Agreement aims at establishing a government-led co-operation mechanism for emergency response, with professional emergency rescue forces as the mainstay and actions as the core, and strengthening emergency response capabilities of the three places, so as to cope with accidents, disasters, natural disasters and other contingencies affecting Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
The governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are jointly formulating a new Greater Bay Area Emergency Response Operational Plan tailored for cities in the Greater Bay Area, which covers technical and knowledge exchange mechanism, resource sharing mechanism, and emergency mobilisation and co-ordination mechanism, so as to promote overall improvement in emergency management in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, achieve effective utilisation and rational sharing of emergency response resources and enhance the effectiveness of cross-boundary rescue. The governments of the three places expressed their hope to set up a task force on Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao emergency management co-operation and hold its first meeting within this year to take stock of the emergency management co-operation experience and to chart out future developments of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao emergency management.
After the signing ceremony, the HKSAR Government hosted a welcome dinner to express gratitude to the Central Authorities and the governments of Guangdong and Macao for their staunch support for emergency management co-operation in the three places.
The signing ceremony and welcome dinner were held at the Disciplined Services Sports and Recreation Club. Participants of the signing ceremony will visit emergency response facilities of the HKSAR Government tomorrow (June 15) to strengthen professional exchanges, laying a solid foundation for future co-operation.
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