The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Ms Louise Ho, began a Yangtze River Delta (YRD) visit to Hangzhou and Shanghai on December 10. The itinerary includes visits to the Hangzhou Customs District and the Shanghai Customs District, as well as exchanges with Shanghai-based Hong Kong students and enterprises.
During the visit, Ms Ho met with the Director General of the Hangzhou Customs District, Mr Wang Wei, and the Director General of the Shanghai Customs District, Mr Gao Rongkun. In the meetings, Ms Ho stressed that Hong Kong Customs will, based on the Co-operative Arrangement on Smart Customs Development signed recently with the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, take forward the new mode of co-operation with smart construction as the core, strengthen mutual co-operation with the Customs administrations in the YRD and accelerate the development of Smart Customs.
Ms Ho also visited the Smart Customs facilities of Hangzhou and Shanghai Customs respectively to study the latest developments of various technologies, including the Smart Customs Cyber System for the Asian Games and the mini programme for racehorses' AI chips recognition developed for the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou, the Yangshan Automated Terminal and the Lingang New Area big data platform.
Ms Ho yesterday (December 12) attended the experience day of Hong Kong Customs Recruitment Scheme for Hong Kong students on the Mainland, which was co-organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Shanghai (SHETO), where she interacted with the participating Shanghai-based Hong Kong students.
Speaking at the experience day seminar, Ms Ho stated that Hong Kong Customs looks forward to attracting and nurturing a new generation of Customs specialists with a sense of national identity, an affection for Hong Kong, a global outlook, as well as social responsibility. Through meeting peers from various provinces, Hong Kong students on the Mainland are exposed to different ideas, ways of thinking and cultures, and therefore are able develop a diversified mindset. Having such a broad horizon is conducive for coping with the various work of Customs and meeting the needs of different groups in society.
Through the co-ordination efforts of the SHETO, Ms Ho yesterday also met with representatives of Shanghai-based Hong Kong enterprises to learn about their business development situation in the YRD region and introduce to them various trade facilitation measures launched by Hong Kong Customs, including the Hong Kong Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Programme and Single E-lock Scheme, which aim to strengthen Hong Kong Customs' role as an economic development promoter and its functions of facilitating business and logistics. Quoting the recently organised AEO Expert Mission and Symposium for ASEAN and Hong Kong, China, Ms Ho said Hong Kong Customs is committed to further enhancing co-operation with other Customs administrations and enterprises in order to safeguard the international supply chain security, facilitate movement of legitimate goods and achieve a win-win situation.
Ms Ho will conclude her visit and return to Hong Kong tomorrow (December 14).
Ends/Wednesday, December 13, 2023
