Hong Kong’s chief executive-designate, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, says she hopes the city will take advantage of China’s increasing economic power to seek new impetus for its long-term prosperity and stability.

Lam, the first female chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said she is optimistic on China’s future development and that Hong Kong’s rapid growth as an international financial center and regional business hub could not have been achieved without the nation’s economic takeoff since the reform and opening-up.

According to the SAR’s government, Hong Kong’s GDP last year was HK$2.5 trillion ($320.6 billion), an 81 percent nominal increase from 1997.

“Based on my experience as a civil servant in the past more than 30 years, I believe Hong Kong’s future is very promising, thanks to our country’s rise as an emerging economic power,” Lam said.

She said Hong Kong can always find a new growth point under the context of national development.

“The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 will provide new opportunities for us to move forward and maintain our advantage as a regional service center,” she said.

Lam said Hong Kong could use its experience in asset management and risk management to make a contribution to the nation’s major development plans, including the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and the Belt and Road Initiative.

The prosperity and stability Hong Kong has enjoyed during the past 20 years exemplify the successful implementation of the principle of one country, two systems-“Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” with a high degree of autonomy, Lam said.

After being elected as Hong Kong’s fifth chief executive in March, Lam pledged to do her utmost to uphold the one country, two systems principle and guard Hong Kong’s core values.

She also promised to address issues concerning the city’s future development, such as applying new resources to education, tackling housing problems and introducing new financial and tax measures.

“I expect Hong Kong to become a place where residents will feel satisfactory, children will grow up happily and healthily, young people will have an arena to exert their advantages and elderly could enjoy their retirement,” she said.

Based on the latest data, Hong Kong continues to be the world’s most expensive housing market. Lam conceded that rising prices are an urgent issue for the next government and said she intends to tackle the problem with measures such as a “starter home” program.

She also plans to put more resources into the education system to cultivate more talent for sustainable development.

The city government introduced a policy of free kindergarten education this year, extending the 12 years of free education to 15 years.

Lam, who was former chief secretary of administration, said Hong Kong has fallen behind in the Internet Plus industry and that it will be the next government’s priority to catch up.

“I invited Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, to my office for advice on developing Hong Kong’s internet industry at a faster pace,” she said.

To push forward the city’s economic development, government needs to become more positive and play news roles, Lam stressed.

“I felt the heavy burden on my shoulders when I received the appointment document from Premier Li Keqiang,” Lam said. “Being the chief executive of Hong Kong can be really challenging as I have to be responsible to both the central government and the city.

“But I have confidence in making Hong Kong into a vigorous special administration region in the nation.”

More than 10 people were injured after a gas blast at a night market in northeast China’s Liaoning Province on Tuesday, said local authorities.

The blast happened at 8:20 p.m. at a pancake booth in Jinzhou City, Liaoning, due to the owner’s misoperation of the gas cylinder, said the city authorities.

The injured have received treatment. None is in critical condition.

The recent heat wave in Beijing and neighboring areas will be swept away by a rainstorm, according to the Beijing Meteorological Observatory Tuesday.

From Wednesday to Saturday, heavy rain will hit Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province, the observatory said.

Beijing will experience thunderstorms from Wednesday afternoon, and heavy rainfall Thursday, with precipitation of 40 mm to 150 mm, said Guo Jinlan, chief forecaster of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

Accumulative precipitation in Hebei and Tianjin is also forecast to reach rainstorm levels, Guo said.

The bureau has reminded citizens to stay away from dangerous sites such as rivers, reservoirs and construction venues during the rainstorm and called for prevention of rain-triggered flood and landslides.

Four tourists and one herder died, with another missing, after a rainstorm triggered a flash flood in a mountainous area of Beijing and Hebei Province Sunday.

A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Tuesday called on public security organs to speed up sci-tech innovation.

Meng Jianzhu, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a work conference on sci-tech and informationization in the country’s public security organs.

Meng asked public security organs to accelerate the use of sci-tech achievements and prepare for the 19th CPC National Congress scheduled for later this year.

He also asked them to remain loyal to the CPC, serve the people and carry out law enforcement fairly.

Public security minister Guo Shengkun also attended the meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday underscored centralized and unified leadership to boost integrated military and civilian development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the first plenary meeting of the central commission for integrated military and civilian development, which he heads.

Upgraded as a national strategy, integrated military and civilian development is a major achievement of China’s long-term exploration of coordinated development of economic and national defense construction, Xi said.

It is also a major decision concerning national development and overall security, and a major measure to deal with complicated security threats and gain national strategic advantages, Xi said.

Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, who are all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and also deputy heads of the commission, also attended the meeting.

Working rules and recent tasks of the commission, as well as a guideline on setting up local leading and working organs for integrated military and civilian development, were adopted at the meeting.

The military and civilian integration must be based on the situation of the country, Xi said, noting the integration process must bear distinctive Chinese characteristics.

“The ideas, decisions and plans of military and civilian integration must be fully implemented in all fields of national economic and defense construction and in the whole processes,” Xi said.

The integration should value national socialist advantage of pooling resources to solve major problems and raising working efficiency, Xi said.

The integration must combine state guidance with the market’s role, and comprehensively employ institutional innovation, policy support and legal guarantee to give full play to military and civilian integration, he said.

Xi also noted that the ultimate approach to deepening military and civilian integration lies in reform and innovation, calling for pilot schemes and exemplary models to explore new ways, and expand new space for military and civilian integration.

He also highlighted the proper use of the law in guiding and protecting the integrating procedure and called for improvement in market entry to encourage a larger number of competent enterprises, staff, technology and capital to play a role.

On deepening integrated military and civilian development, Xi called for focusing on key areas such as infrastructure, national defense-related sci-tech industry, weapon and equipment procurement, talent cultivation, socialization of the support system for the military, as well as the mobilization for national defense.

Ideas and requirements of integrated military and civilian development should be implemented in the fields of sea, outer space, cyber space, biology and new energy, Xi said.