Chief Executive John Lee, along with a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Legislative Council (LegCo) delegation, concluded a four-day visit to the Greater Bay Area by touring Guangzhou today.

In the morning, the two groups of LegCo members led by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki and LegCo President Andrew Leung arrived in Guangzhou from Dongguan and Foshan.

Their first stop was the Lijiao sewage treatment plant where they learnt more about the city's work on sewage treatment by underground ecological water purification plants.

The delegation then attended a luncheon hosted by CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee Secretary Lin Keqing and Guangzhou Municipal Government Mayor Guo Yonghang.

Noting that both Hong Kong and Guangzhou are core cities of the bay area and shoulder the responsibility of being core engines for regional development, Mr Lee expressed his hope for more innovative policy breakthroughs with closer collaboration between the two cities to promote the development of the bay area to a higher level.

In the afternoon, the delegates met CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Secretary Huang Kunming and CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Deputy Secretary and Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong. The State Council’s Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office Deputy Director Wang Linggui also made a special visit to attend the meeting.

Mr Lee thanked the central government as well as the relevant parties of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and Guangzhou for their support and extensive work in ensuring a smooth visit.

At the conclusion of their four-day tour of the bay area, Mr Lee said the Hong Kong SAR Government officials and LegCo members visited a number of projects, facilities and enterprises in areas including innovation and technology, environmental protection, youth development, and culture and arts.

He described the visit as a journey of unity concerning Hong Kong's active participation in the bay area development and consensus building.

The Chief Executive made it clear that the tour provided an opportunity for the entire group to have a closer interaction, facilitating their formulation of more and better policies for the Hong Kong SAR with concerted minds and efforts.

He also stressed that it was a vivid demonstration of the implementation of "patriots administering Hong Kong" to improve governance jointly by the executive authorities and the legislature of the Hong Kong SAR.

Apart from indicating that it was an official visit of the largest scale since the full resumption of normal travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland, Mr Lee pointed out that the visit fully reflected the high regard accorded by the Hong Kong SAR Government to the development of the bay area with Mainland cities chosen as destinations for the tour.

Additionally, Mr Lee noted that the visit facilitated the Hong Kong SAR Government's work in strengthening the connection and deepening the consensus of collaboration with various bay area Mainland cities, laying a solid foundation for the continuous promotion of high-level co-operation in the bay area to achieve complementarity.

The Hong Kong SAR will capitalise on its unique advantages of enjoying strong national support while maintaining unparalleled connectivity with the world under the “one country, two systems” principle, and work together with other bay area cities in promoting high-quality development and telling the good stories of the bay area in the international arena, Mr Lee added.