Hong Kong’s leader stresses need to act on message from Beijing’s Xia Baolong

Hong Kong’s leader has tasked his senior officials with following up on directions given by Beijing’s point man on city affairs, urging his ministers during a meeting to further cross-border cooperation through large-scale development projects.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu held the meeting on Thursday morning, two days after he returned from the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, emphasising efforts must be stepped up on the development of the Northern Metropolis and Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.

Lee was out of the city when Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, met ministers as he made a three-day fact-finding trip to Shenzhen starting on Saturday.

“We need to streamline procedures to better integrate the efforts of the government, market and society to expedite the first batch of industries setting foot in the Northern Metropolis,” Lee said on social media.

He was referring to the megadevelopment that aims to turn 30,000 hectares of land near the city’s border with mainland China into a new economic engine and housing hub.

Lee added that authorities should promote aligning the regulations and mechanisms of Hong Kong and the mainland in the cooperation zone in Hetao to improve the flow of people, goods, capital and information.