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The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Frederick Ma, arrived in Toronto this afternoon (November 8, Toronto time) on the third leg of his North America tour, after visiting San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In his first visit to Canada as Hong Kong's top trade official, Mr Ma will discuss with his Canadian audience the "New Direction" for Hong Kong announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang in the recent Policy Address, which outlined measures to promote Hong Kong's economic development through infrastructure projects, to strengthen its position as an international financial, trade and shipping hub, and to make Hong Kong a balanced, pluralistic, stable and advanced city.
Mr Ma will address a breakfast roundtable of business association leaders and senior Canadian government officials on Friday (November 9, Toronto time) on "Hong Kong: The Dynamic Bridgehead for Advancing Canadian Business Opportunities in China". He will also deliver a keynote speech entitled "A New Direction for Hong Kong" at a business luncheon jointly organised by the Empire Club and the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association and supported by the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in Canada.
Upon his arrival today, Mr Ma met with some 70 student leaders representing overseas Hong Kong students attending universities across Ontario. As Mainland China's economy is growing at an unprecedented pace, Mr Ma shared with the students how they could chart their career paths through Hong Kong, and position themselves to take advantage of such a promising market.
Participants at the "Meet-the-Students" session came from six of the largest universities in Ontario -- the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, York University, Ryerson University and McMaster University.
Early this morning before departing for Toronto, Mr Ma attended a breakfast roundtable hosted by the US-China Business Council and met with Congressman Wally Herger of California in Washington, D.C.
Ends/Friday, November 9, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:24
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