The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, visited Dongguan today (January 4) to meet with the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress and the Secretary of the CPC Dongguan Municipal Committee, Mr Xiao Yafei, and attend the 2024 GBA iForum cum Dinner. Joining was the Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Clement Woo.
      
     Mr Lee and Mr Xiao met to exchange views on further promoting co-operation between Hong Kong and Dongguan, and the development opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
      
     Mr Lee noted that Hong Kong and Dongguan enjoy close geographical and cultural ties, and have been maintaining seamless collaboration with remarkable achievements. On promoting logistics connectivity, the Airport Authority Hong Kong has set up the Hong Kong International Airport Logistics Park in Dongguan to promote the "sea-air intermodal cargo transshipment" mode, which has enhanced the international connectivity of cargo services in the GBA and further improved the international competitiveness of the manufacturing as well as import and export industries in the GBA. He said that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will press ahead with the construction of a permanent facility for the logistics park, with the first-phase construction to be completed by the end of next year.
      
     On education co-operation, the first phase of campus construction of the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) was completed in August last year, and the university is currently working at full steam in preparing for its official establishment. Mr Lee expressed his hope that the university, upon its official commissioning, will contribute to the nurturing of innovative and internationalised top-notch talent for the country with its first-class educational resources and strengths in various disciplines.
      
     Mr Lee said he hopes that Hong Kong and Dongguan will continue to maintain close co-operation under the principles of complementarity and mutual benefits, and make greater contributions to the construction of an international first-class bay area for living, working and travelling.
      
     In the afternoon, Mr Lee attended the 2024 GBA iForum. Addressing the forum, he said that GBA Mainland cities have a strong industrial foundation, and Hong Kong has the distinctive advantage of enjoying the strong support of the country while being closely connected to the world under "one country, two systems". As the GBA progresses towards high technology and high value-added development, Hong Kong will fully leverage its dual roles of "super connector" and "super value-adder", with a view to connecting the GBA and the international market, and providing Hong Kong’s high value-added professional services to the GBA.
      
     In the evening, Mr Lee visited the exhibition area of the forum and attended the forum dinner to exchange views with political and business leaders and representatives of enterprises in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Speaking at the dinner, Mr Lee expressed his hope for Hong Kong enterprises to make good use of the GBA as the best point of access to actively participate in the development of the GBA and contribute to the high-quality development of the country.
      
     Mr Lee will return to Hong Kong tomorrow (January 5).

Ends/Thursday, January 4, 2024
Issued at HKT 19:31

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