CE to visit Middle East

January 31, 2023

Chief Executive John Lee:

As regards my trip to the Middle East, obviously, this is one of the programmes that I have said many times, since the announcement of my Policy Address, that we will tell the good Hong Kong story.

Now (that) we have resumed normalcy, it is time for us to go out and tell people that Hong Kong is as normal as before the COVID-19 (epidemic), and (about) the business opportunities and all the advantages of Hong Kong; (that Hong Kong), being an international city and also a special administrative region of our country, has all sorts of attractions and advantages for people to grasp so that they will not lose their opportunities to develop and realise their potential in Hong Kong.

I have formed a high-level delegation comprising over 30 very successful and very influential representatives in different sectors so that we can go and tell the good Hong Kong story (and) the opportunities here.

Then of course, the visit to the Middle East is also a reinforcement of the policy of President Xi Jinping in his visit to Saudi Arabia when he made his policy speech about how to capitalise on the Belt & Road Initiative, so that we can help different countries make use of the good opportunities that we can offer, (while we can also) make use of the opportunity to develop our economy and further strengthen the different potential and increase our competitiveness.

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive John Lee announced today that he will pay a duty visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this Saturday.

He made the statement before attending the Executive Council meeting and told reporters that such a visit is one of many strategic programmes the Government is using to tell the good stories of Hong Kong given the city has returned to normalcy.

“Now (that) we have resumed normalcy, it is time for us to go out and tell people that Hong Kong is as normal as before the COVID-19 epidemic, and (about) the business opportunities and all the advantages of Hong Kong; (that Hong Kong), being an international city and also a special administrative region of the country, has all sorts of attractions and advantages for people to grasp so that they will not lose their opportunities to develop and realise their potential in Hong Kong.”

Mr Lee described the delegation that will accompany him on his trip and explained that their goal is to enable those in the Middle East to seize the opportunities arising from the Belt & Road Initiative.

“I have formed a high-level delegation comprising over 30 very influential representatives in different sectors so that we can go and tell the good Hong Kong story - and the opportunities here.

“We can help different countries make use of the good opportunities that we can offer, (while we can also) make use of the opportunity to develop our economy and further strengthen the different potential and increase our competitiveness.”