HK, Shanghai put ink to paper with agreements
Hong Kong and Shanghai signed 15 agreements to enhance cooperation in six areas ranging from business to law during the fourth Hong Kong-Shanghai Cooperation Conference, held in the special administrative region on Friday.
The memorandums of understanding on legal services, education, commerce, innovative technology, culture and finance will present further collaboration opportunities between the two cities, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
The MoUs on commerce, finance and legal services will push communications among professionals in both sides, Lam said. The ones on culture, innovative technology and education can build Hong Kong and Shanghai’s comprehensive and deep partnership in art and culture as well as strengthen collaborative development of technology startups, smart cities and the software industry.
Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong said at the opening of the conference that these agreements will be promoted and operated into separate projects, which is much more practical.
As the two important economic centers in the nation, Lam reckoned Hong Kong and Shanghai’s cooperation is not a zero-sum game but has mutual benefits.
She noted that Hong Kong investment projects in Shanghai rose to 29,000 from 22,000 in the past five years, and more than 110 Shanghaibased enterprises have been listed in Hong Kong so far. In addition, since the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was launched in 2013, new Hong Kong-invested companies in the zone have accounted for 45 percent of the overseas-funded enter-
The MoUs on commerce, finance and legal services will push communications among professionals in both sides.”
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor
prises.
Leading a 70-person delegation, Ying said they are also learning from Hong Kong’s experience in building a global financial center and in urban governance.
The cooperative mechanism was started in 2003. Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, launched in 2014, was regarded as one of the most outstanding achievements of the two locations’ cooperation. It allows investors in each market to trade shares on the other market and helps the mainland capital market open up gradually in a risk-controllable manner.
As the first official meeting of the leading group for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area was held in Beijing, a detailed plan of the Bay Area will probably be released soon. Lam said the Bay Area and the Yangtze River Economic Belt encompassing Shanghai are both national strategies on regional development, which need continuous innovation to realize multiple goals.
Members of the Executive Council, the president of the Legislative Council and several lawmakers in different industries attended the signing ceremony.