Chief secretary sees deeper cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam noted the success of previous cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on Friday, adding that she hopes the two sides can make good use of the country's development and push their level of cooperation to new heights.

Lam was in Shenzhen to co-chair the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Co-operation Meeting with the mayor of the Shenzhen municipal government, Xu Qin. She said the two cities have made concrete achievements in Qianhai's development, financial cooperation, cross-boundary infrastructure projects, and cooperation in livelihood issues.

"Over the past year, Hong Kong and Shenzhen have taken forward the various cooperation initiatives in a pragmatic manner and good progress has been made," Lam noted. "The mainland's efforts in speeding up the transformation of its economic structure by developing and expanding the service sector and boosting domestic demand would present enormous opportunities for cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. In the coming year, the two sides will continue to deepen cooperation in various areas."

After the meeting, Lam said Qianhai has been defined as "a window for developing modern servicing industries for Hong Kong and Guangdong province". She added, while the Shenzhen government is working on the implementation details of Qianhai's development, Hong Kong will continue to maintain close ties with the relevant central ministries and Shenzhen authorities, and reflect the views of Hong Kong business sectors in a timely manner.

Lam also believed the recently announced cross-boundary Renminbi loan trial scheme, which allows companies registered, operated or having investment in Qianhai to borrow yuan from Hong Kong banks, will further enhance the cross-boundary usage and circulation of the currency, creating more opportunities in yuan loan business for Hong Kong banks. In the coming year, the HKSAR government will continue to push forward cooperation on yuan business between the two places.

The chief secretary thanked Shenzhen's assistance in the crackdown on parallel trading, cross-boundary arrangements for school children, and stopping pregnant mainland mothers without advanced bookings from giving birth in Hong Kong. She said with the full cooperation of Shenzhen, there was a significant drop in the number of illicit births last year, and improved law and order situation at cross-boundary checkpoints.

The two cities signed four agreements on Friday, covering innovation and entrepreneurship base for the youth, investment promotion on both sides, communication in cultural and arts, and cooperation on aquatic animal disease laboratory diagnosis.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/12/2013 page1)