Chief Executive Carrie Lam met Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong at Government House today.

Mrs Lam welcomed Mr Ying's visit to Hong Kong. He and his delegation will attend the 4th Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference to be held on August 24.

She said Hong Kong and Shanghai have been enjoying a close relationship which has much room for further development, adding she visited Shanghai soon after assuming office last year, meeting then CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee Secretary Han Zheng and Mr Ying.

Mrs Lam said she was very pleased the two sides agreed to hold the Fourth Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Shanghai Co-operation Conference in Hong Kong and both governments have done a lot of work for the conference in the past months.

She believed the two sides would reach consensus to strengthen co-operation at the meeting and sign a number of agreements covering areas including legal services, education, commerce and trade, innovation and technology, culture, and finance. 

On I&T, State Council Vice Premier Han Zheng confirmed the Central Government’s support for the establishment of an international I&T hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Mrs Lam hopes to strengthen collaboration with Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, which are advancing rapidly in I&T development, and contribute together to the building of an innovation-oriented country.

She hopes Mr Ying, who will also attend a youth forum, and tour waste treatment and elderly care facilities, would better understand Hong Kong's latest developments so that there will be more room for co-operation and exchanges between the two cities in the future.