The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, attended the signing ceremony for the donation by the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation to the Palace Museum and visited the Palace Museum and its exhibition in Beijing this afternoon (March 2).

     Mrs Lam, accompanied by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Patrick Nip, and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, attended the signing ceremony at the Palace Museum. In addition to the Director of the Palace Museum, Dr Shan Jixiang and the Chairman of the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation, Mr Robert Ng, guests including the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Luo Shugang, the Director General of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Mr Liu Yuzhu and the Director of the Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, Mr Li Ji were also present. The donation by the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation serves to fund the repair of the Palace of Prolonging Happiness in the Palace Museum, the establishment of a gallery of foreign artefacts and the restoration of more than 200 foreign artefacts.

     Addressing the ceremony, Mrs Lam said that the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation upholds the fine tradition of Hong Kong entrepreneurs fully supporting the Palace Museum's work on heritage conservation. She added that Hong Kong has long been a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world and it is particularly meaningful that this donation will fund the repair of the Palace of Prolonging Happiness, which has a Western architectural style, as well as the establishment of a gallery of foreign artefacts.

     Thanking the Palace Museum for its long-standing support for the set-up of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Mrs Lam said she was pleased to note that the Palace Museum will provide relevant training to the professionals of the Hong Kong Palace Museum on areas including the repair of ancient architectural structures, artefact restoration and management, design of exhibition halls and display of exhibits when carrying out the Palace of Prolonging Happiness project. In addition, the Palace Museum will also select some young people who participated in the Beijing Palace Museum Conservation Internship Programme for two weeks of advanced training. The Palace Museum has held the Beijing Palace Museum Conservation Internship Programme every summer since 2017 to provide a six-week internship programme for Hong Kong young people to broaden their horizons and enrich their knowledge on heritage conservation and appreciation, and to promote exchanges among the trainees from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

     Before the ceremony, Mrs Lam and the other officials also toured the Palace of Prolonging Happiness and the "Celebrating the Spring Festival in the Forbidden City" exhibition showing the traditional decorations and activities at the Palace during the Lunar New Year in the past.

     In the morning, Mrs Lam had a working meeting with the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, Mr Zhang Xiaoming, and visited China Media Group and gave an interview to it.

Ends/Saturday, March 2, 2019
Issued at HKT 21:02

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