Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho met Deputy Mayor of Barcelona Jordi Valls Riera to discuss matters including housing policy and construction technologies as she began a two-day visit to the Spanish city yesterday.

Ms Ho met the deputy mayor, who oversees housing policy, economic affairs and tourism yesterday morning. She briefed him on the implementation of government-led Light Public Housing (LPH) projects in Hong Kong that use Modular Integrated Construction.

She highlighted that the first LPH project – at Yau Pok Road, Yuen Long – took only about one year to complete, and that the first phase of the project at Choi Hing Road in Ngau Tau Kok was completed in less than 18 months, a record for the construction of high-rise buildings in Hong Kong.

Ms Ho also outlined that the Housing Bureau and the Hong Kong Housing Authority are engaged in continuously optimising the city's housing ladder to encourage more young people and families to ascend it.

She mentioned that in November the bureau will organise an international symposium in Hong Kong to showcase developments in construction technologies in Mainland China and Hong Kong to the world.

Later on, Ms Ho visited a social housing project, Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing, where timber frames were used to reduce carbon emissions and a modular design was adopted to shorten construction time.

Ms Ho then toured another social housing project, APROP-Glòries, in which converted containers are used to provide temporary accommodation to people in need.

Ms Ho highlighted that governments of both Hong Kong and Barcelona are dedicated to increasing their housing supply through swift and pragmatic measures, and to providing accommodation to families with urgent housing needs.

She added that she hoped the two places will continue to share experiences on relevant initiatives.

Ms Ho then paid a courtesy call on Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Barcelona Meng Yuhong, and briefed her on the various housing initiatives being implemented by the bureau.

These include leveraging the strengths of the Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to promote the development of housing construction technologies.

Today, the housing chief visited another social housing project, 72 Social Housing Units, to learn about its design characteristics and energy-efficient living environment.

In concluding her trip, Ms Ho observed that Hong Kong enjoys the unique advantage of having the strong support of the motherland while maintaining unparalleled connectivity with the world, as well as the strategic geographical benefit of being connected to the bay area.

She added that the visit had demonstrated how Hong Kong is giving full play to its roles as a super connector and super value-adder.

“I look forward to maintaining close exchanges with Portugal and Spain in areas including innovative construction technologies, people-oriented 'Well-being design' concepts and sustainable smart city development, and exploring further collaboration to create more opportunities for the industries and enterprises of the three places.”

Ms Ho will return to Hong Kong tomorrow morning.