​The Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs, Mrs Cherry Tse; the Director General of the Department of Culture of Guangdong Province, Mr Wang Yiyang; and the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), Ms Mok Ian-ian, attended the 20th Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Cooperation Meeting in Macao today (June 20). About 100 delegates including officials and representatives of relevant arts and cultural authorities and organisations from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao also joined the meeting.
 
     In her concluding remarks, Mrs Tse said that following the launch of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to strengthen its efforts on arts and culture, such as jointly taking forward the transmission and development of the traditions of Chinese culture, as well as promoting arts organisations and groups in the three places to perform in the Greater Bay Area. Moreover, the Government has reserved $140 million for use over five years to support Hong Kong arts groups and artists in making cultural exchanges in the Greater Bay Area. There have already been 29 performances of 11 local productions in five Greater Bay Area cities supported by this initiative in the past year.
 
     The three places have made progress in various areas of co-operation. In the performing arts, the three places will co-organise the "Showcase of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Cantonese Opera Masters" in Hong Kong this year. As for museums, Hong Kong will organise the Museum Summit in November this year again in tandem with the re-opening of the renovated Hong Kong Museum of Art, and will invite professionals from museums in Guangdong and Macao to attend. Regarding professional training, the three places will continue to organise the Greater Pearl River Delta Conservation Training Workshop to enhance professional conservation skills. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the inscription of Cantonese opera onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the three places will also organise the Chinese Arts and Cultural Festival 2019, as well as the Greater Bay Area Cantonese Opera Development Forum.
 
     The Home Affairs Bureau signed an agreement on cultural co-operation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in 2003 with the Department of Culture of Guangdong Province, and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR, to establish a cultural co-operation framework within the Greater Pearl River Delta region. The five working groups set up under this framework met yesterday afternoon (June 19) to discuss specific topics, namely exchanges for performing artists and co-organisation of cultural programmes, co-operation in public libraries and cultural information, co-operation in museum services, intangible cultural heritage, and co-operation in cultural and creative industries.

Ends/Thursday, June 20, 2019
Issued at HKT 17:48

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