Chief Executive John Lee highlighted at a Civil Service Bureau session today that President Xi Jinping's important speech was a key milestone of high significance and serves as the blueprint and beacon for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

President Xi delivered an important speech at the meeting celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inaugural ceremony of the sixth-term Hong Kong SAR Government.

The bureau today held the third Spirit of the President's Important Speech session to enable participants to obtain a deeper understanding of the speech.

As the keynote speaker, Mr Lee said the President pointed out in his important speech that the principle of “one country, two systems” has been tested repeatedly in practice and that there is no reason for changing such a good policy and it must be adhered to in the long run.

The Chief Executive also expounded in depth on the important logic and theory underlying the “one country, two systems” principle, noting that the more firmly the “one country” principle is upheld, the greater the strength of “two systems” will be for unleashing the development of the Special Administrative Regions.

He also hoped that the Hong Kong SAR Government's top echelon and civil servants would seriously study and comprehend President Xi's important speech, grasp its core essence and build it into their own work; bear it in mind as the overall direction and blueprint for the administration of Hong Kong in further improving the city’s governance, creating strong impetus for growth, addressing people's concerns and difficulties in daily life, and uniting the society for concerted efforts to build a harmonious, inclusive and diversified community; and respect and safeguard the country's fundamental systems on their own volition.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan also shared his thoughts at the session that was attended by around 500 participants mainly comprising civil servants at the ranks of Directorate Pay Scale Points 1 and 2.

President Xi raised in his important speech "four musts" for the new administration: we must fully and faithfully implement the principle of "one country, two systems"; we must uphold the central government's overall jurisdiction while securing the Hong Kong SAR's high degree of autonomy; we must ensure that Hong Kong is administered by patriots; and we must maintain Hong Kong's distinctive status and advantages.

The President also laid down "four proposals" for the newly inaugurated Government, ie further improving its governance, continuing to create strong impetus for growth, earnestly addressing people's concerns and difficulties in daily life, and working together to safeguard harmony and stability.