Hong Kong learns Party congress details

A delegation of central government officials provided information on Thursday about the fundamentals of the recent national congress of China's ruling party, offering Hong Kong a clearer look at the country's future road map.

It is the first such event held in the city regarding a national congress of the Communist Party of China since the city's return to China in 1997.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will greatly benefit from the detail provided by the delegation, a government spokesman said. The statement was issued after an internal seminar for the city's high-level officials on the 19th CPC National Congress.

The seminar was led by Leng Rong, director of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Party Literature Research Office, and was attended by 240 people, including SAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, senior government officials and nonofficial members of the Executive Council.

"The 19th CPC National Congress is of the utmost and far-reaching significance for the development of our country and also great importance to Hong Kong," the spokesman said. He said the seminar is "conducive to a deeper appreciation" of the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and its contents by government officials and will facilitate the work of the Hong Kong SAR government.

Previously, the SAR government had organized series of seminars on national affairs by inviting mainland officials, experts and academics to speak on various topics.

Also on Thursday, Yi Gang, deputy director of the General Office of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, hosted an open seminar for the public on the congress.

He noted that the Party highly values Hong Kong's lasting prosperity and stability, and attaches great importance to Hong Kong's advanced experience in the service sector.

Yi spoke about Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which was written into the Party's Constitution on Oct 24, as well as the basic policy for carrying out the Thought.

He also presented new strategies outlined in the report for China's economic and social development.

Attendees from different walks of life praised Yi's talk, saying it clearly presented the new outlook of the country and new opportunities to arise from it.

Stanley Ng Chau-pei, a National People's Congress deputy, said that following the 19th CPC National Congress, Hong Kong should ride on the momentum of the country's rapid development in a better way. He also said the briefing has provided guidance for the youth of the SAR on how they can equip themselves to meet the needs of the nation's development.

Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, permanent honorary president of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, said the briefing group's visit to Hong Kong is important as it has made the country's ideas clearer to many local people who had limited knowledge of the congress.

Francis Lui Ting-ming, professor emeritus of economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said Yi's speech has laid out a convincing blueprint for China's future development.

HK will play 'larger part' in growth

A higher level of economic collaboration between the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will help the city play a bigger role in the rapid development of the world's second-largest economy, a central government official said.

"The winning growth formula for the Chinese mainland's economic miracle over the past four decades is our unswerving adherence to the national policy of opening-up," Yi Gang, deputy director of the General Office of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, said at a seminar in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Hong Kong, ranked the world's freest economy for the 23rd straight year by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, has exported a pragmatic, results-based and market-oriented approach that helped transform the Chinese mainland from a closed, centrally planned economy into the global powerhouse it is today, Yi said.

The meeting focused on giving an official interpretation of the just-concluded 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the Hong Kong public. The seminar was organized by Our Hong Kong Foundation, one of the city's leading think tanks, founded by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa in 2014.

Yi is among a group of prominent central government officials invited by the Hong Kong SAR government to brief Hong Kong officials and the public on the congress.