The Chief Executive's Policy Unit (CEPU) Expert Group held its first meeting today (June 16). The meeting was held in three sessions according to the streams members belong to, namely Economic Advancement Expert Group, Social Development Expert Group and Research Strategy Expert Group. The Head of the CEPU, Dr Stephen Wong, chaired the meeting.
 
     The theme of the meeting was "achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong", and the discussion atmosphere was lively. High-quality development is the top task of building China into a modern socialist country in all aspects, and it is a new theme in the new development stage. Members of the Expert Group agreed that high-quality development was important for Hong Kong to progress from stability to prosperity. Hong Kong and the country were inextricably linked in terms of high-quality development, and Hong Kong should leverage its unique position and strengths to contribute to the high-quality development of the country. Members of the expert group noted that the new term of Government has been committed to serving the people better and charting a brighter tomorrow for Hong Kong, which brings a fresh atmosphere to the city. In recent years, Hong Kong has transitioned from chaos to order, and now embarked on a new journey from stability to prosperity. Members were fully confident of Hong Kong's future prospects, and as long as Hong Kong could fully play its role as the gateway between the country and the world under the principle of "one country, two systems" and pursue high-quality development, economic prosperity will be attained and people's livelihood and well-being will be enhanced, despite the different social problems and complicated geopolitical situations facing Hong Kong.
           
     Dr Wong said, "I am very grateful to all members for attending today's meeting despite their busy schedules and for offering their insights from different perspectives on 'achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong'. It marks a good start to the work of the Expert Group. As the important research partners of the CEPU, they will offer their views and suggestions that can definitely enrich the perspectives and connotations of our policy researches, especially in strengthening our capacity in conducting strategic and forward-looking researches internally in accordance with the Chief Executive's priorities and policy objectives. We will carefully collate and analyse the valuable views and suggestions put forward by the members at the meeting, and interact closely with them through the pre-established liaison mechanism, including at least quarterly engagements as well as further discussions on various issues with a view to pooling collective wisdom and making concerted efforts to provide quality policy research results for Hong Kong to achieve high-quality development in economic development, social progress and other various aspects."
 
     The Government announced on May 30, 2023, the establishment of the CEPU Expert Group, which comprises members of different backgrounds including business, finance, professionals, think-tanks and academia to provide expert views and new ideas to the CEPU concerning various topics. For the membership of the Expert Group, please refer to the website of the CEPU (www.cepu.gov.hk).

Ends/Friday, June 16, 2023
Issued at HKT 17:56

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