Hong Kong will overcome present challenges to play key role in China’s trade strategy, city’s leader Carrie Lam tells annual Belt and Road Summit
- Chief executive admits to problems facing the city, but says it will find a way back to stability
- Beijing officials say ending violence is in everyone’s best interest
Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor remains confident the city will rise again, after more than three months of increasingly violent anti-government protests.
Addressing an international gathering of businessmen and professionals at the annual Belt and Road Summit on Wednesday, the chief executive acknowledged that Hong Kong is facing challenges posed by the trade war between the United States and China as well as ongoing social unrest.
But she put on a brave front and said at the opening of the two-day event: “We can find our way back to reasoned discussion. Hong Kong, after all, has been built, and rebuilt, time and again, on our indomitable resilience.
“Call it the spirit of Hong Kong, and know that it will see us through. It will ensure that we also find our place, and help you find yours, along the belt and road.”
The summit, jointly organised by the Hong Kong government and the Trade Development Council, attracted 5,000 businessmen and professionals from 60 countries and regions in Europe, Asia and Africa.
As Lam and her colleagues assured the foreign guests that Hong Kong would overcome its current difficulties, senior Beijing officials stressed their support for the city leader, agreeing that social stability and long-term prosperity were linked intrinsically.