The 12th Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Nov 26-27.

Government officials from Beijing and Hong Kong will join senior business executives to exchange views on bolstering economic cooperation between the two cities.

"The cooperation between Beijing and Hong Kong has always been close, especially after the closer economic partnership arrangement (CEPA) came into effect in January 2004. Cooperations in areas such as product trading, services trading and investments in both cities have been expanded," Joyce Hui, director of international promotions at Hong Kong Trade Development Council said.

City officials from Beijing and Hong Kong will attend this two-day event, while senior executives from various enterprises will join the forum and discuss how to strengthen and deepen the partnership and cooperation in cultural and innovative industries, high-tech industries, city infrastructure and management between Beijing and Hong Kong.

Apart from economic partnerships, the event will also open a window for Hong Kong investors to look for business opportunities on the mainland.

"So far, we have been discussing projects with various enterprises. One of them is a 150 million yuan project with the Mass Transit Railway Company(MTR)," Zhang Jifei, an investment promotion official with the Beijing municipal government, said.

Officials from the Beijing municipal government will exchange views with consultants and enterprises concerning post-Olympics infrastructure development.

"After the Olympic was held in Beijing this year, the city has become more internationalized. We have built 31 centers for the Games and they have become landmarks in Beijing now," Wang Hui, media communication official at Beijing municipal government said. "We have attracted 250,000 visitors to our landmarks and we would like to know how we can develop tourism with these infrastructure projects," she added.

According to Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong is the biggest investor in Beijing with 612 investment projects totalling more than $3 billion.

Beijing's exports to Hong Kong also totalled $3.51 billion at a growth rate of 17.6 percent. Hong Kong is the third largest export market to Beijing next to the US and Japan.

(HK Edition 11/06/2008 page2)