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The Vice Chairman of the State Development Planning Commission, Mr Zhang Guobao, and his delegation today (March 1) visited various major infrastructure projects for air, land and sea transport in Hong Kong.
Accompanied by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, and the Secretary for Planning and Lands, Mr John Tsang, the delegation began their visit by a helicopter tour this morning. Members of the delegation took a bird's eye view of some major infrastructure projects.
Director of Highways, Mr Lo Yiu-ching, and Deputy Director of Planning, Mrs Ava Ng, briefed them along the tour on the developments of new towns, Shenzhen Western Corridor, Deep Bay Link, West Rail, sewage treatment facilities, Castle Peak Power Station, as well as reclamation works for Disney Theme Park and Container Terminal Number 9.
The party took also a distant look of the development in Shenzhen and Yantian in the Mainland.
The helicopter tour ended in Chek Lap Kok where they were received by the Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee, Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr Albert Lam, and Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority, Dr David Pang.
Dr Pang showed the Mainland counterparts the operation of Passenger Terminal, Airport Operation Control Centre and Airport Emergency Centre.
The party also visited the SuperTerminal 1 and its facilities including the Box Storage System, Container Storage System, as well as the Express Centre and Valuable Cargo Handling Centre.
In the afternoon, the delegates, accompanied by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Nicholas Ng, and the Project Director of MTR Corporation, Mr Russell John Black, travelled from the Airport to Tsing Yi Station by Airport Express. They also took a look of the cabin during the ride.
Later in the afternoon, the party visited the West Rail (Siu Hong Station) and was briefed by the Principal Government Engineer/Railway Development Office of Highways Department, Mr Chai Sung-veng, on the railway development in Hong Kong.
The final stop on itinerary was visit to the port facilities. The delegation members took a first hand look of the different modes of cargo operation respectively at the Tuen Mun River Trade Terminal with Deputy Secretary for Economic Services, Mr Alex Fong, and the Hong Kong International Container Terminal.
Mr Donald Tsang hosted a dinner for the Mainland delegation at night.
Mr Tsang and his colleagues will have a working session with Mr Zhang and his delegation tomorrow (March 2) morning when the two sides will exchange views on infrastructure coordination and cooperation. The Mainland delegation will brief its Hong Kong counterparts on the latest infrastructure planning in the Mainland.
The Mainland delegation will leave Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon.
End/Friday, March 1, 2002
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