Chief Executive Carrie Lam met CPC Hunan Provincial Committee Secretary Du Jiahao at Government House today.

Welcoming Mr Du's first visit to Hong Kong in his capacity as CPC Hunan Provincial Committee Secretary with a delegation, Mrs Lam said she was pleased to know Mr Du had chosen to take the high-speed rail for the round trip and will go back to Changsha on a direct train from West Kowloon Station.

She congratulated Hunan Province for the successful hosting of the 2019 Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Conference and the signing of many investment projects for Hunan.

Mrs Lam said the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a key national development strategy covering not only enterprises in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, but also those further afield.

She welcomed Hunan Province to host promotion week events with the theme of connecting Hunan Province and the bay area to seize opportunities.

The Chief Executive encouraged Hunan enterprises to leverage Hong Kong's advantages as an international city with an open and facilitating business environment as well as quality professional services to develop businesses.

She said Hong Kong and Hunan Province have close trade and economic ties, in particular with the Hunan Liaison Unit set up by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 2016, and she thanked Hunan Province for its staunch support of the unit.

Mrs Lam added Hong Kong has strong complementarity with Hunan in a number of industries and she looks forward to enhancing co-operation in areas including modern services industries, financial services, innovation and technology and tourism between the two places.