CE ATTENDS ECONOMIC SYMPOSIUM

Chief Executive John Lee, leading a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region delegation, attended the 27th Beijing Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium and the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Conference in Beijing today.

Themed “Leveraging mutual strengths, creating prosperity together”, the symposium, which runs until tomorrow at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, attracted around 800 participants.

Apart from 15 thematic promotional sessions, the symposium also includes for the first time the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Conference, which features keynote speeches and promotions focusing on Hong Kong’s unique advantages, business environment, and measures servicing enterprises of Beijing and Hong Kong and facilitating their co-operation.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Lee said it was of profound significance for Beijing and Hong Kong to jointly organise the symposium in Beijing on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He pointed out that Beijing has always been an important partner of Hong Kong, and co-operation of the two cities to complement their strengths on all fronts would be conducive to the development of businesses of Beijing enterprises in the Hong Kong and global markets.

“This is the first time for the symposium to include a theme of promoting ‘invest in Hong Kong’ to underline the investment opportunities in and business advantages of Hong Kong with a view to fostering exchanges and co-operation between the enterprises in Beijing and Hong Kong and injecting greater impetus into the economies of the two places.”

The Chief Executive also introduced Hong Kong’s unique advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world under “one country, two systems”. He also noted that Hong Kong has long been playing an active role in the country’s reform and opening up, and fully dovetailing with key national strategies, proactively integrating into national development and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan, who spoke at a themed promotion activity in the morning, said that Beijing and Hong Kong could enhance co-operation in three key areas.

He explained that the two cities could better leverage financial strengths to support innovation and technology (I&T) development, enhance co-operation in I&T and the digital economy, and co-operate in developing international business.

Mr Chan supplemented that Hong Kong is an international financial centre with a complete financing market and is at the same time actively constructing the “patient capital” ecosystem to provide strong financial support for I&T development.

In respect of I&T, he said both Beijing and Hong Kong are proactively developing into an international I&T hub, and there is ample room for co-operation in the development of new quality productive forces.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s high-level professional services are familiarised with the international market and standards, and possess a worldwide business network, which could provide comprehensive and sound supporting services for Mainland enterprises to develop international business, the finance chief added.

Today’s symposium also featured a signing ceremony of a number of key co-operation projects between Beijing and Hong Kong, covering finance, technology and intelligent manufacturing, as well as two key enterprises sharing their successful experiences in Beijing-Hong Kong co-operation and investing in Hong Kong. About 170 bilateral investment and business promotion projects were announced, with a total investment of around RMB42 billion, encompassing spatial resources, corporate financing, technological co-operation, and enterprises’ going global drive.

After the event, Mr Lee then met CPC Beijing Municipal Committee Secretary Yin Li, and attended a luncheon hosted by him. The Chief Executive noted that Hong Kong will continue to make good use of its favourable business environment to serve as Mainland enterprises’ best connector to the international market, and will collaborate with Beijing to enhance industry development and competitiveness.

In the afternoon, the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the relevant Beijing authorities jointly organised three special promotion activities on finance, technological innovation as well as trade and logistics to promote investment in Hong Kong, during which Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui, Secretary for Transport & Logistics Lam Sai-hung and Secretary for Innovation, Technology & Industry Prof Sun Dong delivered speeches. Officials, experts and enterprises of Hong Kong and Beijing spoke and shared their successful experiences.

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