Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said on Monday that economic indicators from last year's third quarter prove that Hong Kong's orientation and strategy for future development has borne initial fruit.

Tung made the remark while addressing the 2003 International Investment Forum held during the 7th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) that opened Monday morning in Xiamen, a port city in east China's Fujian Province.

Hong Kong has experienced a significant change in its economy in the past six years due to economic globalization and the bursting of the economic bubble, Tung said.

"But the global economic development trend has made us realize that in future development, Hong Kong should rely on the motherland, look to the world and pursue a path of high added value by way of solidifying and improving Hong Kong's position as a center of international finance, logistics, tourism and business service," said Tung in a speech.

A range of policies introduced by the Central Government recently have served as shots in the arm to Hong Kong, and quite a number of encouraging development trends have occurred, along with improved economic growth, which has in turn improved the atmosphere of the entire society, Tung said.

The signing of the Mainland-Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) will greatly advance the flow of people, cargo and capital, promote exchanges in economic, social and cultural causes between the mainland and Hong Kong, and usher in a new era in the development of relations between the mainland and Hong Kong, Tung noted.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Regional (HKSAR) Government has been making active efforts to support the development trend, said Tung.

On the one hand, the HKSAR Government helps market commodities made in Hong Kong to the mainland and encourages financial businesses and trained professionals in Hong Kong to start up new services or try their luck on the mainland.

On the other hand, businesses and individuals on the mainland are also welcomed to make investments, pursue a career, travel and visit friends or relatives in Hong Kong, said the chief executive.

Tung believed economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and the mainland have been becoming incorporated, and in this process, Hong Kong will be presented with broad investment and development changes in capital raising, management of fortune, operation of companies and especially manufacturing, he said.

Tung is confident that economic cooperation between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta will be ushered into a new stage and more chances for development will be created.

Hong Kong's development into a center of international finance, logistics and business service in the Asia and Pacific regions is closely related to fast economic growth in the motherland, and to the long-standing care and support of the Central Government and the broad masses of the people on the mainland, Tung stressed.

He hoped Hong Kong could play a new and bigger role in the motherland's economic construction and the drive to adapt to the international market.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2003)