HK, Sichuan anticipate ‘new era’ of regional cooperation

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Sichuan province will enter a new era of regional cooperation — especially on work and services for their young people — Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Sunday.

Wrapping up her four-day visit to the province, Lam said youth-related work is a mutual concern emphasized by both the SAR and Sichuan provincial governments.

Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China Peng Qinghua has a particular interest in young people from Hong Kong, as he had a nineyear stint in the city as a liaison official, according to Lam.

The two governments have recently set up a regular exchange program. This will allow Hong Kong young people to get firsthand experience of Sichuan culture. The project is expected to bring around 1,000 Hong Kong youth to Sichuan before 2019.

The Sichuan government has also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to intensify cooperation in talent nurturing and academic exchanges.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education of Sichuan Province has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hong Kong’s Vocational Training Council, for improving vocational education for young people.

Lam also noted that her official visit to Sichuan had witnessed greater regional cooperation in finance, trade, investment and innovation and technology, as well as marking the beginning of the Hong Kong-Sichuan Cooperation Conference mechanism.

Under the mechanism, the chief secretary for administration will hold joint meetings from time to time with the province’s vice-governor in charge of Hong Kong and Macao affairs.

The mechanism is welcomed by Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, as well as Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong SAR Wang Zhimin, who were in Sichuan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake.

Zhang said the mechanism served as a new starting point for Hong Kong and Sichuan; the two regions will be able to enter a new chapter of mutual prosperity.

Wang said cooperation between the southwestern province and the SAR was about upholding “one country” while utilizing the advantages of “two systems”.