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Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, delivered at the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding on urban planning between Hong Kong and Barcelona, in Barcelona, Spain on November 16 (Madrid time):
Mayor (Xavier) Trias, friends, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be here in Barcelona.
It has been almost four months since Mayor Trias visited Hong Kong for a joint city initiative on harbourfront development and sustainable urbanism in July this year. I am very happy in my capacity as the Chief Secretary for Administration and also in my previous capacity as Secretary for Development to meet up Mayor Trias. And today, I am here in Barcelona, a very unique and vibrant city, to further strengthen our co-operation.
Hong Kong and Barcelona have a lot in common in respect of urban regeneration and harbourfront development. We both have a long waterfront along a bustling harbour. We share the same vision to make the waterfront a vibrant and accessible space for public enjoyment. In respect of city development and city regeneration, both cities are striving to keep a balance between development needs - economic needs including job creation - on one hand and sustainability on the other hand, while at the same time treasuring our city's heritage.
The successful experience of Barcelona in harbourfront transformation and city regeneration, particularly on rallying widespread public support and turning forsaken areas into vibrant public space, provides a good lesson in our endeavours for an attractive, vibrant and sustainable city. In this regard, Mayor Trias had shared his valuable experience and insights with us during the joint-city initiative on sustainable urbanism in his last visit to Hong Kong. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude again to you, Mayor Trias and your delegation for making the joint-city initiative a great success.
As for Hong Kong, a little update, we have a number of mega harbour-front projects, like the 320-hectare Kai Tak Development which Mayor Trias has visited, the 20-hectare New Central Harbourfront which is coming into shape and the 40-hectare West Kowloon Cultural District. They are all by the Victoria Harbourfront and now in progress. Unlike Hong Kong's previous harbourfront projects which have created some of the tallest, and indeed, finest building powering the city's financial, convention, exhibition, retail and hotel developments, these latest harbourfront projects which will dot Victoria Harbour's final shoreline (as we have committed to "no more reclamation" within the Victoria Harbour) are going to provide performance venues, museums, spacious promenades, people-oriented public space for enjoyment. All in all, these mega projects will create a vibrant and accessible harbourfront – a Harbour of Life! To ensure that vibrancy and liveliness is sustainable, and the public will play a key part in the process, we are also contemplating the establishment of a dedicated authority called Harbourfront Authority to develop and manage harbourfront projects in achieving a world-class harbourfront.
Today, the collaboration of the two cities in harbourfront development, as well as in urban planning, design and regeneration, comes to another milestone. It is a key moment that the City of Barcelona and Hong Kong would foster a closer collaboration in the exchange of expertise and experience on harbourfront planning and development as well as urban design and regeneration.
With the memorandum of understanding signed today, the two cities would join hands and strengthen our collaboration in sharing expertise and experience on the development of harbourfront and urban environment to make a better and more sustainable place for our people. I look forward for further opportunities for exchanges and hope that officials and professionals from both cities will make full use of this new platform in the months and years ahead.
Thank you.
Ends/Friday, November 16, 2012
Issued at HKT 23:26
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