Chief Executive Carrie Lam met the new Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Luo Huining at Government House today.

Extending a warm welcome to Mr Luo on his assumption of the post in Hong Kong, Mrs Lam said that during Mr Luo’s visit to the city when he was Secretary of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee at the end of 2018, they had very good exchanges and she was impressed by his care for Hong Kong.

She said that although Mr Luo has just taken up the post, he is familiar with the situations in Hong Kong. She hoped that communication and co-operation with him would be enhanced down the road to promote various areas of work involving the Mainland and Hong Kong.

Mrs Lam briefed Mr Luo on the Hong Kong SAR Government’s work in various aspects over the past two years and the social unrest arising from the exercise to amend the fugitive bill since last June.

Both parties considered that Hong Kong had experienced the most challenging situation since its return to the motherland during the past seven months, seriously affecting all aspects of society, and agreed that restoring order as soon as possible is the common aspiration of the public.

Mrs Lam said the Hong Kong SAR Government will, in accordance with the Basic Law and the "one country, two systems” principle, spare no effort to curb violence and uphold the rule of law to find a way out of the current impasse.

Both parties are confident that under the long-standing and strong support of the Central Government, Hong Kong will be able to relaunch itself as well as better integrate into the overall development of the nation and achieve long-term prosperity and stability.

Mrs Lam also said in the meeting that as the severe economic situation may affect the livelihood of the public, especially the grassroots, her Government will proactively study the launch of relief measures to help them.