CE MEETS VIETNAMESE PRESIDENT

Chief Executive John Lee achieved remarkable results on day two of his visit in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he met Vietnamese President To Lam and the country’s Deputy Prime Minister.

In the morning, Mr Lee, who is leading a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region delegation, had breakfast with staff of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office at a local restaurant to better understand their work and experience the unique Vietnamese food culture.

Afterwards, Mr Lee met Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang. They jointly witnessed an exchange of eight memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between government departments, enterprises and organisations of the two places in areas including economics and trade, aviation services development, and financial and capital market development.

Following the exchange of MoUs, Mr Lee led the Hong Kong SAR delegation to join a meeting session with Mr Tran.

Mr Lee remarked that Vietnam has experienced rapid economic developments in recent years, while Hong Kong serves as an international financial, trade, shipping, logistics, and professional services centre.

He encouraged more Vietnamese enterprises to leverage Hong Kong's advantages to tap into the Mainland and international markets.

“Hong Kong is an ideal place for listing and other fundraising activities and with quality provision of different financial, legal and professional services, it can be Vietnam’s premier business partner to tap foreign markets, particularly the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” Mr Lee said.

“There are abundant opportunities for organisations and companies of both places to explore collaboration. The synergy between Hong Kong and Vietnam should be great.

“In this connection, I am excited to see that a number of parties of Vietnam and Hong Kong are signing 30 MoUs in this visit,” he added.

In the afternoon, the Chief Executive met Mr To to exchange views on issues of mutual interest.

Apart from highlighting that Hong Kong and Vietnam have always maintained close bilateral trade relations, Mr Lee noted that Vietnam is the seventh-largest trading partner of Hong Kong and the second-largest one among the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

After emphasising that Hong Kong treasures its relationship with Vietnam, He stressed that he looks forward to paving the way for new co-operation opportunities between the governments and business sectors of the two places through this visit.

Additionally, Mr Lee expressed his hope for Vietnam's continuous support for Hong Kong's early accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to further contribute to regional economic developments.

The Chief Executive then met Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Xiong Bo.

Mr Lee thanked Mr Xiong and the embassy for their thoughtful arrangements for the visit, as well as their continuous support for the Hong Kong SAR Government's liaison and promotional work in Vietnam.

The Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to promote economic, trade and cultural exchanges between the two places, he added.

The Chief Executive will depart for Ho Chi Minh City this evening to continue his duty visit tomorrow.

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