Shenzhen and Hong Kong step up cooperation efforts

A Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation conference was held in Shenzhen on April 2.

Speaking at the meeting, Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, chief secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said that last year the two cities made remarkable progress in their cooperation in financial services, cross-border infrastructure construction, education, innovative industries, environmental protection, social livelihood, culture and medical care.

Cheung addedthat the two sides will continue to work together in other fields.

Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui said that the two cities will further improve their cooperation mechanisms, co-plan some cooperation projects and make it more convenient for Hong Kong residents to work and live in Shenzhen.

They will play up Qianhai's role as a platform to promote interconnectivity between ports, and will work together to construct a first-class international bay area and a world-class city cluster, Chen added.

Cheung and Chen exchanged ideas on future cooperation between the two cities and signed a series of cooperation agreements at the conference.

According to Cheung, the Liantang Port is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

Chen said that Shenzhen has engaged itself in 'seven big actions', including building itself into an international science and technology innovation center, and promoting infrastructure interconnectivity.

The city started 31 projects related to the building of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area this year, which required a total investment of about 75 billion yuan ($11.18 billion).

According to Chen, the city government has accelerated its work on the planning and its approvals of several traffic, industrial park and port construction projects, and they are exploring new cooperation mechanisms with Hong Kong to remove obstacles for the free flow of talent, capital, goods and technologies between the two cities.

Cheung also said Hong Kong has world-class science and technology research capacity, four world-class universities, highly developed institutions for the protection of judicial and intellectual property rights, and an internationalized business environment. And Shenzhen, as an innovative city, has strong ability to industrialize the developments from science and technology research and advanced manufacturing.

Cheung concluded that the two cities can pool the innovative resources of the Greater Bay Area and far beyond, and provide all kinds of future services in researchand development, IPR, trade, financing and legal mediation for the region and the world.