Shanghai, Hong Kong celebrate 20 years of fruitful cooperation

The signing ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the Shanghai-Hong Kong cooperation conference mechanism was held in Shanghai on Saturday.

Prior to the ceremony, Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining and Mayor Gong Zheng met with Lee Ka Chiu, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Representing the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, Chen and Gong welcomed Lee's attendance at the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai and expressed their gratitude to the Hong Kong SAR Government and Hong Kong compatriots for their long-term support and assistance to Shanghai's development.

Chen introduced Shanghai's economic and social development. As a national economic center, Shanghai is actively following President Xi Jinping's grand blueprint while emphasizing high-quality development.

Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland 26 years ago, it has gone through an extraordinary process, and the "one country, two systems" practice in Hong Kong has achieved world-renowned success.

Shanghai and Hong Kong have many similarities. Since the establishment of the Shanghai-Hong Kong cooperation conference mechanism 20 years ago, fruitful results have been achieved in various fields. On the new journey of Chinese-style modernization, Shanghai and Hong Kong have important missions to undertake.

We hope that both sides will deepen communication and connection, give full play to their respective advantages, focus on financial services, shipping, technological innovation, professional services, urban planning and urban governance, and carry out larger and deeper cooperation. Both sides could jointly promote Shanghai-Hong Kong cooperation and exchanges to a new level and make a bigger contribution to the country's overall development, Chen said.

Lee thanked Shanghai for its long-term support and assistance to Hong Kong's development, and wished the 6th China International Import Expo a complete success. He said that Hong Kong and Shanghai have a solid foundation for cooperation with frequent exchanges in various fields and complementary strengths. During his visit to Shanghai this time, he had a more profound sense of the vitality and development momentum of the city.

Hong Kong is actively integrating into the country's overall development and strategic plan, and it was hoped that Hong Kong and Shanghai could further deepen cooperation in science and technology innovation, financial services and talent aggregation. He suggested that both sides leverage the major platform of the Import Expo to expand economic and trade cooperation.

Lee and Gong witnessed the signing of the agreement.