CE meets Governor of Guizhou Province (with photos)
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     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, met the Governor of Guizhou Province, Ms Shen Yiqin, at Government House this afternoon (October 9). The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, and the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Patrick Nip, were also present.
 
     Mrs Lam welcomed Ms Shen's first visit to Hong Kong in her present capacity to attend an event on economic, trade and tourism promotion between Guizhou and Hong Kong to be held tomorrow (October 10) and wished the event every success. Noting that exchanges between the governments of the two places are frequent, Mrs Lam said that Mr Chan attended the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 in Guiyang a few months ago; the Vice-Governor of Guizhou Province, Mr Lu Yongzheng, visited Hong Kong in the middle of this year to attend a trade promotion event; and the Secretary for Development, Mr Michael Wong, led a delegation to Guiyang earlier to attend the 2018 Mainland and Hong Kong Construction Forum. All of these visits have demonstrated that Guizhou and Hong Kong attach great importance to the co-operation between the two sides, Mrs Lam said.
 
     Mrs Lam said that Guizhou possesses abundant resources, has seen rapid development in recent years and holds immense growth potential, while Hong Kong, being the largest source of external investment in Guizhou, is an excellent platform to attract foreign capital for Guizhou and help Guizhou enterprises to "go global". She said that with the commissioning of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link last month, it only takes around five hours to travel from Hong Kong West Kowloon Station to Guiyang North Station, bringing immense benefits for further co-operation between the two places. Given that Guizhou is striving to develop its big data industry with remarkable results and that Hong Kong is proactively advancing the development of innovation and technology, including biomedicine, artificial intelligence and smart city initiatives, Mrs Lam expressed the hope that the two places will explore more room for co-operation in relevant areas.

Ends/Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Issued at HKT 20:18

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