CE Starts Wuhan Visit
Chief Executive Carrie Lam started her visit to Wuhan in Hubei Province today.
Meeting CPC Hubei Provincial Committee Secretary Ying Yong, Mrs Lam thanked him for his support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s work all along. She also expressed her special gratitude to Hubei Province for taking care of Hong Kong people in the province at the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan last year, including delivering emergency drugs and essential supplies, and supporting the Hong Kong SAR Government to arrange chartered flights to bring Hong Kong people home.
In addition, Mrs Lam said she is pleased that the Hubei Provincial Government accepted the Hong Kong SAR Government’s proposal to establish a Hong Kong-Hubei co-operation mechanism, the first high-level co-operation mechanism set up between Hong Kong and a province in the central region of the Mainland.
Enjoying strong complementary and geographical advantages, there are good prospects for co-operation between the two places, Mrs Lam stressed. In particular, Hong Kong as an international financial centre can assist Hubei enterprises to go global by providing services on fundraising through listings and expanding to overseas markets.
The Chief Executive pointed out that under the central authorities’ robust leadership and full support, Hong Kong has achieved a major transformation from chaos to governance. With the country’s support to develop the eight centres stated in the 14th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong would be able to fully align with the five centres that Wuhan is actively developing, ie a national economic centre, a national centre for scientific and technological innovation, a national centre for trade and logistics, a centre of international exchanges and a regional financial centre, raising co-operation between the two places to a higher level.
Mrs Lam and Mr Ying then co-hosted the High-Level Meeting & First Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Hubei Co-operation Conference where a consensus to foster collaboration on all fronts to contribute to national development was reached. Also at the meeting were Chief Secretary John Lee, Secretary for Innovation & Technology Alfred Sit, Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui, Under Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Clement Woo and other relevant officials.
During today’s visit, Mrs Lam, accompanied by Hubei Province Vice Governor Zhao Haishan, called on Wuhan Asia General Hospital, a Hong Kong enterprise, to learn about its advanced facilities and the frontline healthcare workers’ experiences in fighting COVID-19.
At the height of the epidemic, the hospital pledged to accord priority to admit infected local Hong Kong residents, and provided test kits to assist Hong Kong’s anti-epidemic work. Mrs Lam presented a flag of appreciation to the hospital management and healthcare workers for their selfless contribution, helping the country fight the virus amid a most difficult situation.
Afterwards, Mrs Lam visited the China EV100 intelligent network research institute to understand its development of intelligent automobiles, smart city software and business operating system platform. She also took a ride on an unmanned bus and viewed a demonstration of an unmanned specialised vehicle.
The Chief Executive will continue her visit to Wuhan tomorrow.
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