Chief Executive John Lee today held a high-level meeting with CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee Secretary Xin Changxing in Hong Kong and both officials witnessed the signing of bilateral agreements for promoting joint developments.

Mr Lee said at the meeting that both Hong Kong and Jiangsu are important to the country's high-quality development, with the province playing an important role in the development strategies of integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, is one of the core cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and has the distinctive advantages of “one country, two systems”, enjoys the strong support of the motherland and is closely connected to the world, he added.

The Chief Executive also noted that Hong Kong's “eight centres” under the National 14th Five-Year Plan complements Jiangsu's development positioning of “one centre, one base, one hub” and that deepening co-operation between the two places will create more and better development opportunities.

Hong Kong and Jiangsu reached a consensus in 12 co-operation areas including: the Belt & Road Initiative, finance, innovation and technology, trade and industry, construction and modern service industry, legal services, education, culture and tourism, health and hygiene, exchange of talent, youth development, and facilitation for Hong Kong people in the Mainland.

Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki and Jiangsu Provincial People's Government Vice Governor Fang Wei signed the co-operation agreement on deepening the exchange between both places.

Five co-operation agreements were also signed by government departments and organisations of the two places, encompassing education, youth development, innovation and technology co-operation, investment promotion, and economic and trade co-operation.