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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, at the prize presentation ceremony of the UBS Hong Kong Open 2012 today (November 18):
Mr (Peter) Aherne, Mr (Jeffery) Lam, Ms (Kathryn) Shih, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon, it gives me great pleasure to join you all at this exciting competition. I wish to express my thanks to all the players, golf lovers, and visitors for your participation and great support for this fabulous event.
The Hong Kong Open is one of Hong Kong's oldest professional sporting events and a solid testimony of Hong Kong's capability in hosting world-class competitions. With the continued support of the Mega Events Fund this year, the Open has further grown into a signature event with the participation of a strong field of top players. It also enables a range of publicity and community programmes to further promote the event and Hong Kong.
Mega events like the Hong Kong Open not only add colour and vibrancy to our city, but also enrich the travel experience of our visitors and reinforce Hong Kong's position as the Events Capital of Asia.
I earnestly invite our visitors to tour around Hong Kong, experience our major attractions and enjoy our diverse world-class shopping and dining offers. Apart from this scenic golf club, you can also explore Hong Kong's amazing great outdoors, spectacular areas such as the Hong Kong Global Geopark of China, our many country parks, the outlying islands and our lovely beaches. With a well developed transportation network, our countryside is easily accessible to visitors.
To sum up, may I congratulate the Hong Kong Golf Association and the European Tour for making the Hong Kong Open 2012 a great success. And I wish all our visitors from abroad an enjoyable and memorable stay in Hong Kong.
Ends/Sunday, November 18, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:44
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