Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki attended the opening ceremony of an industrial transfer and development matchmaking event, met local government officials and toured an industrial park in Harbin today before concluding his visit to the city.
 
In the morning, he attended the opening ceremony of the 2024 China Industrial Transfer & Development Matchmaking Activities (Heilongjiang) organised by the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology and the People’s Government of Heilongjiang Province.
 
Mr Chan delivered a speech introducing Hong Kong’s role in assisting the optimisation and upgrading of Heilongjiang’s industries, fostering new quality productive forces, and servicing the country’s overall high-quality development.
 
He also encouraged local enterprises to make use of Hong Kong’s dual role as a super connector and super value-adder to promote connections and co-operation with Hong Kong in areas such as finance, innovation and technology, value-added services, professional support services and biomedicine.
 
Additionally, Mr Chan invited local companies to use Hong Kong as a springboard and a stronghold for expanding into the international market.
 
In the afternoon, the Chief Secretary met Deputy Director of the Department of Industry & Information Technology of Heilongjiang Province Guo Yuehua to exchange views on co-operation initiatives in innovation technology, industry, and trade.
 
They expressed the hope of further strengthening exchanges and co-operation in innovation technology between the two places, and jointly making contributions to the country’s scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.
 
Mr Chan then visited the Shenzhen (Harbin) Industrial Park to learn about the latest local developments in digital economy, high-end equipment manufacturing, bioeconomy and new materials industry.
 
This was followed by Mr Chan’s meeting with Mayor of the Harbin Municipal People’s Government Wang Hesheng, during which the two officials discussed further promoting economic and trade co-operation and cultural exchanges between the two places.
 
The Chief Secretary pointed out that the central government further enhanced the Individual Visit Scheme in May this year, adding Harbin as one of the Mainland cities eligible for the scheme. Direct flights between Harbin and Hong Kong have also commenced operation.
 
He added that these favourable policies and measures will deepen economic, trade, tourism and cultural exchanges between Harbin and Hong Kong, making the co-operative relationships between the two places even closer.
 
Mr Chan will return to Hong Kong tomorrow morning.