CE Meets French Minister

Chief Executive Carrie Lam continued her visit to France in Paris yesterday where she met Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Mrs Lam hopes Hong Kong and France have more collaboration in the future, including in the promotion of free trade and participation in the Belt & Road Initiative.

She then joined a breakfast meeting at Institut Montaigne, a French think tank, attended by business leaders and academics.

Mrs Lam discussed developments in Hong Kong, including the successful implementation of "one country, two systems", the rule of law and judicial independence.

She later visited Ecole Polytechnique to learn about its development and research projects on biomedical technology.

Ecole Polytechnique has started co-operating with universities in Hong Kong and Mrs Lam said she hopes these exchanges will promote the internationalisation of higher education in Hong Kong.

She also met a group of students and encouraged them to visit Hong Kong under the Working Holiday Scheme.

"As the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, I would agree that Hong Kong is great. But Hong Kong could be greater with more talents coming to work and co-operate with us, particularly talented students in the STEM area because my government is now pressing ahead with promoting innovation and technology in Hong Kong ranging from biomedical technology to artificial intelligence, robotics, smart city and fintech."

Mrs Lam then visited the Louvre Museum where she met its President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez and saw part of its collection.

She thanked the museum for co-organising a large-scale exhibition with the Hong Kong Heritage Museum last year, giving Hong Kong people a chance to see some of the Louvre's rich collection.