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Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the Gala Premiere of the Hong Kong Film Festival in Bangkok, Thailand, today (April 26):
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Sa-wat dee khap (Hello in Thai).
I am delighted to welcome you to tonight's Gala Premiere of the Hong Kong Film Festival 2012. This is our first Hong Kong Film Festival in Thailand, and from what I can see, it will be a great success.
Hong Kong movies and TV drama series have provided endless hours of entertainment for people throughout South East Asia, including here in Thailand.
Thai audiences have come under the spell of Kung-fu movie legends since the groundbreaking days of my idol, the brilliant Bruce Lee. Since then, other Hong Kong stars including Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen have also become household names here and around the world. In addition to these home-grown heroes, I am also a big fan of Tony Jaa who is capable of mesmerising me with his kicks and punches and totally amazing body movements.
Hong Kong's film industry is big business.
As home to more than nine million Chinese, which is more than the entire population of Hong Kong, Thailand offers huge opportunities for our city's film productions. Bangkok, with its own proud cinematic history, is also a prime location for exchange and information-sharing in the field of film art.
This is why we are organising the first Hong Kong Film Festival here in Bangkok.
The visual elements of cinema are said to give motion pictures their power of communication. For Hong Kong, with more than a century of film-making history under our belt, there is no better way to communicate our city's spirit of adventure and creativity than through our movies.
Over the years, Hong Kong films have gained considerable worldwide acclaim. Outstanding performances of our actors, directors, cinematographers and producers, have been rewarded with over 300 international awards in the past decade.
To showcase our latest achievements, we have prepared a line up of 10 award-winning Hong Kong movies.
Among them, we proudly present "A Simple Life" as the opening movie tonight. The movie has scooped coveted awards in regional and international film festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, Taipei's Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards held earlier this month.
In recent years, Hong Kong's film industry has broadened its horizons through closer collaboration with our counterparts in Mainland China. A unique free trade agreement called CEPA has vastly expanded access to the Mainland's movie market.
Since CEPA was launched in 2003, the number of Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions has grown rapidly from about 10 titles a year to the current number of around 30. They have also enjoyed tremendous box office success.
Last year, six out of the top 10 box office hits on the Mainland were Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions.
I encourage Thai film companies to use Hong Kong as the gateway to tap the growing business opportunities in the Mainland. Through Hong Kong, you can take advantage of CEPA to expand into the growing Mainland market.
Similar to Bangkok, Hong Kong is a great location for filming. Our unique cityscape, rich cultural traditions and diverse lifestyle provide stunning settings. In 2010 and 2011, more than 10 films from Hollywood to Bollywood and beyond chose Hong Kong as their filming location.
Our film-makers and actors also like to come to Thailand. Andy Lau, who stars in tonight's opening movie, shot a film called "A Fighter's Blues" entirely in Thailand back in 2000.
Peter Chan Ho-sun, a renowned Hong Kong director and producer, who is versed in the Thai language, was brought up in Thailand. His first experience in the film industry was working as an assistant to John Woo in an action film set in Thailand called "Heroes Shed No Tears".
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure that film collaboration between Thailand and Hong Kong will continue to broaden and deepen in the years ahead.
Finally, and in typical Oscars fashion, I have a few traditional messages of thanks to make. I would like to thank the Thai Government, Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT) and SF World Cinema for their support in organising the Hong Kong Film Festival together with our Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (ASEAN).
Without your support, this event would not have been possible.
Thank you and have a great evening.
Ends/Thursday, April 26, 2012
Issued at HKT 22:48
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