Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan began a visit to Beijing today by calling on the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

On arriving in the capital this afternoon, Ms Chan met Minister of Transport Liu Wei to discuss issues relating to sea, land and air transportation and logistics.

She also had a meeting with CAAC Deputy Administrator Liang Nan and briefed her on aviation developments in Hong Kong.

Stressing that shipping and aviation are key to Hong Kong's “golden reputation”, Ms Chan expressed her gratitude to relevant ministries in enabling Hong Kong to better leverage its advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland while being closely connected to the wider world.

With regard to shipping and logistics, the transport chief highlighted that Hong Kong enjoys access both to China’s vast hinterland and to international markets.

“We will continue to adopt an intermodal transport approach to consolidate and boost our cargo volumes, thereby better utilising and further solidifying Hong Kong's position as an international shipping centre.”

In terms of aviation, she remarked that Hong Kong engages with Mainland hub airports to achieve complementary advantages and is honoured to be the first city outside of the Mainland that is served by the country’s own C919 aircraft.

“We look forward to further facilitating the expansion of C919 from Hong Kong to overseas markets and will continue to proactively offer support in areas such as aircraft maintenance, talent training, aircraft leasing and sales to promote the entry of home-developed aircraft into the international market.”

Ms Chan also visited a local smart transport systems enterprise to learn how technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics can bring efficiency to traffic management.

The company is among a fourth batch of strategic enterprises attracted to establish operations in Hong Kong this year.