CE continues visit to Nanjing
3.11.2019

The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, continued her visit to Nanjing today (November 3), during which she met with the Secretary of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee and toured various facilities related to planning, youth and culture, and exchanged views with tertiary students. In the morning, accompanied by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Patrick Nip, Mrs Lam visited Jiangbei New Area Planning Exhibition Hall to learn about the development planning of the district. Jiangbei New Area is the only state-level new area in Jiangsu Province dedicated to developing innovative and modern industries to serve as an open platform of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Mrs Lam and Mr Nip then visited YOUTH SYNERGY+ youth innovation entrepreneurship base. In August 2018, the governments of Hong Kong and Jiangsu announced the establishment of the base, which provides resources on projects, talents, company growth, financial support, intellectual property protection and supporting services to young entrepreneurs from the two places to help them realise the dreams to set up innovative businesses. At present, there are 13 projects in the base, of which 10 are from Hong Kong. Mrs Lam and Mr Nip visited some of the Hong Kong companies in the base to learn about their development. Afterwards, Mrs Lam went to Nanjing University, where she met with the Secretary of the Nanjing University CPC Committee, Mr Hu Jinbo and the President of Nanjing University, Professor Lyu Jian as well as delivered a keynote speech to about 600 students and answered their questions. She introduced to the audience the vision and actions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and its latest situation. Emphasising that the HKSAR possesses the unique institutional advantage of "One Country, Two Systems" and numerous traditional strengths, she said the HKSAR will continue to leverage on the Mainland while engaging itself globally to seize the opportunities brought about by key national development strategy such as the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative to boost the city's economic development and diversify industries. Introducing Hong Kong's social development, she pointed out that the HKSAR Government is committed to increasing the supply of land and housing to meet the keen housing demands of the public. In the afternoon, Mrs Lam and Mr Nip met with the Secretary of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee, Mr Zhang Jinghua, and attended a lunch hosted by him. Mrs Lam expressed her gratitude to the Municipal Government for making detailed arrangements for her two-day trip, enabling her to visit a number of collaboration projects between Jiangsu and Hong Kong covering trade and investment, culture, science and technology, education and youth development and witness the collaboration results. She expressed the hope that the two places will build on the good foundation to continue to explore deeper and more wide-ranging co-operation. After the lunch, Mrs Lam and the other officials visited the Nanjing Museum, which is the first large-scale and comprehensive museum in the Mainland built by the country with more than 430 000 artefacts of various types in its collection. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has long held a close relationship with the Nanjing Museum. To strengthen cultural exchange and co-operation between Hong Kong and the Mainland, the LCSD and the Nanjing Museum signed an agreement in December 2018. Mrs Lam will depart for Shanghai tomorrow (November 4) to attend activities of the second China International Import Expo. Ends/Sunday, November 3, 2019 Issued at HKT 19:13 NNNN