The Guangdong Provincial Government, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Macao Special Administrative Region Government today signed a framework agreement to enhance co-operation in emergency management and response.

Vice Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management Xu Jia'ai and Member of the Office Leadership of the State Council's Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office Xiang Bin attended the signing ceremony.

Witnessed by Guangdong Executive Vice-Governor Zhang Hu, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki and Macau Secretary for Security Wong Sio-chak, Guangdong Director of the Department of Emergency Management Wang Zaihua, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Macau Commissioner General of the Unitary Police Service Leong Man-cheong signed the framework agreement on behalf of governments in the three places.

The framework agreement aims at establishing a government-led co-operation mechanism for emergency response, with professional emergency rescue forces as the mainstay and actions as the core, and strengthening emergency response capabilities of the three places, so as to cope with accidents, disasters, natural disasters and other contingencies affecting Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

The governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau are jointly formulating a new Greater Bay Area Emergency Response Operational Plan tailored for cities in the Greater Bay Area, which covers a technical and knowledge exchange mechanism, resource sharing mechanism, and emergency mobilisation and co-ordination mechanism, so as to promote overall improvement in emergency management in the three places, achieve effective utilisation and rational sharing of emergency response resources, and enhance the effectiveness of cross-boundary rescue.

The three governments also hope to set up a task force on Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau emergency management co-operation and hold its first meeting within this year to take stock of the emergency management co-operation experience and chart out future developments of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau emergency management.

After the signing ceremony, the Hong Kong SAR Government hosted a welcome dinner to thank the central authorities and the governments of Guangdong and Macau for their staunch support for emergency management co-operation in the three places.

Participants of the signing ceremony will visit emergency response facilities of the Hong Kong SAR Government tomorrow to strengthen professional exchanges, laying a solid foundation for future co-operation.