CE to visit Conghua in Guangzhou and Beijing

     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, has accepted the invitations to visit Conghua in Guangzhou and Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of Exhibition Raceday at Conghua Racecourse and the 20th China Development Forum respectively.
      
     Mrs Lam will depart for Conghua in Guangzhou in the afternoon this Friday (March 22) and attend the opening ceremony of the first Exhibition Raceday to be held by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in collaboration with the Conghua District Government at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Conghua Racecourse the next day. Opened in August last year, the Conghua Racecourse is an important collaboration between Hong Kong and Guangdong. When Guangzhou hosted the Asian Games in 2010, to facilitate overseas horses to take part in the Games in the Mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, with its experience in the organisation of horseraces and enforcement of stringent animal and plant quarantine measures over the years, implemented the first Specific Equine Disease-free Zone in the Mainland in Conghua jointly with the relevant Mainland authorities and the Guangdong Provincial Government, the standard of which was recognised internationally.  The Hong Kong Jockey Club later developed the Asian Games equestrian venue into the current Conghua Racecourse, providing high-quality facilities for horse training. The racecourse is now an important support base for the sport of horse racing in Hong Kong.
      
     Mrs Lam will depart for Beijing from Guangzhou in the evening on March 23 and attend the 20th China Development Forum on March 24 and 25. The theme of this year's forum is "Greater Opening-up for Win-Win Cooperation". Mrs Lam will speak at a session on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The China Development Forum has been hosted annually by the Development Research Centre of the State Council since 2000 with the aim of "Engaging with the World for Common Prosperity". The forum serves as a pivotal platform for dialogues between leaders of the Central Government, global business community and international organisations as well as the academia at home and abroad. Mrs Lam will return to Hong Kong in the afternoon on March 25.
      
     During her absence, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, will be Acting Chief Executive.