HK-SHANGHAI LINKS STRENGTHENED

Chief Executive John Lee and Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng, leading delegations of the governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shanghai, held the Sixth Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference in Hong Kong today.

Mr Lee said that the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference has always received great attention and strong support from the central government and the Shanghai Municipal Government. Since the first plenary session in 2003, exchanges between Hong Kong and Shanghai have been increasingly frequent, with Hong Kong having become one of Shanghai’s major export markets as well as largest source of foreign investment.

The Chief Executive added that today’s plenary is another important milestone of Hong Kong-Shanghai co-operation, establishing a clear direction for future co-operation between the two places and further expanding co-operation in different fields.

Looking forward, he said Hong Kong will continue to utilise its advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world under “one country, two systems”, deepen co-operation with Shanghai, develop new productive forces of both cities, and jointly contribute to the country’s high-quality development.

At the meeting, the two sides reached a consensus on 15 co-operation areas and entered into a co-operation memorandum.

The collaboration areas include: joint pursuit of the Belt & Road development and business investment; innovation and technology; digital economy; finance; civil aviation, maritime transport and logistics; cultural and creative industries; education and talent development; youth development; legal services; environmental governance; city planning and management; healthcare; sports; social welfare services; and facilitation measures for Hong Kong people in the Mainland.

In addition, 20 co-operation agreements were signed by government departments, statutory bodies and relevant organisations of the two places.

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