Greater Bay Area development key to Hong Kong's post-epidemic revival: HKSAR chief executive

An active participation in the development of the Greater Bay Area will be a key direction for reviving the economy after the epidemic, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam said at the 2020 Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Regional Cooperation Chief Executive Joint Conference on Friday.

The chief executive and the relevant officials of the HKSAR government participated in the conference through video conferencing in Hong Kong.

"The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area) is a major development strategy in the country's reform and opening up in the new era and will foster the development of the PPRD region. HKSAR's active participation in the development of the Greater Bay Area will be a key direction for reviving the economy after the epidemic," she said.

At the meeting, Lam discussed various matters with other government leaders of the PPRD provinces and regions, including jointly promoting the high-quality development of the PPRD regional cooperation in the post-epidemic era, building a modernized transport network, and jointly creating an innovative platform for cross-system collaboration.

She mentioned that professional services, financial and legal services in particular, are the fundamental strengths of Hong Kong, hoping that the professional services sectors of Hong Kong could assist enterprises of the PPRD region to explore overseas markets.

Lam pointed out that the epidemic has highlighted the importance of developing and promoting the application of technology. She recognized the potential of Hong Kong's technological and innovative products and solutions to enter overseas markets, which boosted the confidence in developing Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub in the Greater Bay Area.

She said that the HKSAR government is promoting Hong Kong's experiences in applying technology to combat the epidemic to overseas markets, especially the countries along the Belt and Road, and would be pleased to share more experiences with the PPRD provinces and regions.

Lam also mentioned that Hong Kong has come through a difficult period over the past year. She expressed gratitude to the central government and the PPRD provinces and regions for their support to Hong Kong.

She specifically thanked Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian for deploying the support team to assist the HKSAR government in successfully concluding the Universal Community Testing Program, which has provided COVID-19 testing for around 1.8 million Hong Kong residents.

The PPRD is an important regional cooperation platform covering Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan as well as the Hong Kong and Macau SARs. It was officially launched in 2004.