Chief Executive John Lee today met Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Xiao Yafei and attended a Greater Bay Area (GBA) forum in Dongguan.
 
Mr Lee and Mr Xiao, who is also the CPC Dongguan Municipal Committee Secretary, exchanged views on further promoting co-operation between Hong Kong and Dongguan, and the development opportunities in the bay area.
 
Mr Lee noted that Hong Kong and Dongguan have been maintaining seamless collaboration with remarkable achievements.
 
On advancing logistics connectivity, the Airport Authority Hong Kong has set up the Hong Kong International Airport Logistics Park in Dongguan to promote the “sea-air intermodal cargo transshipment” mode, enhancing the international connectivity of GBA cargo services.
 
The park also further improved the international competitiveness of the manufacturing as well as import and export industries in the bay area.
 
The Chief Executive stressed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will press ahead with the construction of a permanent facility for the logistics park, with the first-phase construction to be completed by the end of next year.
     
On education co-operation, the first phase of campus construction of the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) was completed in August last year, and the university is currently working at full steam in preparing for its official establishment.
 
Mr Lee expressed his hope that the university, upon its official commissioning, will contribute to the nurturing of innovative and internationalised top-notch talent for the country with its first-class educational resources and strengths in various disciplines.
     
He also said he hopes that Hong Kong and Dongguan will continue to maintain close co-operation under the principles of complementarity and mutual benefits, and make greater contributions to the construction of an international first-class bay area for living, working and travelling.
 
In the afternoon, Mr Lee attended the 2024 GBA iForum. While addressing the forum, he said GBA Mainland cities have a strong industrial foundation, and Hong Kong has the distinctive advantage of enjoying the strong support of the country while being closely connected to the world under “one country, two systems”.
 
As the bay area progresses towards high technology and high value-added development, Hong Kong will fully leverage its dual roles of “super connector” and “super value-adder”, with a view to connecting the bay area and the international market, and providing Hong Kong’s high value-added professional services to the bay area.
 
In the evening, Mr Lee visited the forum’s exhibition area and attended the forum dinner to exchange views with political and business leaders as well as representatives of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau enterprises.
 
Speaking at the dinner, he expressed his hope for Hong Kong enterprises to make good use of the GBA as the best point of access to actively participate in the bay area development, and contribute to the country’s high-quality development.
     
Mr Lee will return to Hong Kong tomorrow.