The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, held an engagement session with Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) via video conferencing today (February 8) to exchange views with them on Hong Kong's better integration into the overall development of the nation before they attend the meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to be held in Beijing next month. During the meeting, which lasted for more than two hours, a total of 24 deputies expressed their views covering a wide range of topics, with many of them expressing the hope that travel between the two places can resume gradually sooner rather than later, helped by the vaccination programme and continued virus testing. The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Erick Tsang Kwok-wai; and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, also attended the session.

     Mrs Lam said that the NPC and its Standing Committee, as the highest organ of state power, helped solve the problems faced by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) at the constitutional level three times over the past year, which is testimony to the overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR exercised by the Central Authorities and the constitutional relationship between the Central Authorities and the HKSAR. She pointed out that this year is the opening year of the country's 14th Five-Year Plan and that Hong Kong will participate more actively in the nation's development, particularly in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Belt and Road Initiative and the new economic development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation. She expressed the hope that Hong Kong deputies to the NPC would continue to express their views on the related work and lend staunch support to the HKSAR.
 
     Mrs Lam will hold an engagement session with Hong Kong members of the CPPCC via video conferencing tomorrow (February 9).

Ends/Monday, February 8, 2021
Issued at HKT 21:38

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