A team of members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) conducted a research tour on the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in the cities of Changzhou and Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, from Aug 26 to 30.

The team held a conference in Changzhou on Aug 26 to announce the arrangements of their tour, and gave feedback on the survey at a meeting in Suzhou on Aug 30.

In his speech, head of the team Geng Huichang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee said that the survey was a concrete action taken by the CPPCC National Committee to promote the high-quality integrated development of the YRD, and to support Hong Kong and Macao in integrating into the country's overall development.

Geng, also vice-chairperson of the Committee on Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of the CPPCC National Committee, added that the visit was also designed to help CPPCC members from Hong Kong learn more about the country's robust development, bolster their confidence in national development, pool their wisdom and strength into the high-quality development of the YRD, and to deepen the trade cooperation between Hong Kong and Jiangsu in the midst of securing common development.

The team members said that, as the most economically dynamic area in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the YRD boasts huge talents, high-level scientific and technological development, an advanced manufacturing industry, complete industrial and supply chains, and vast market potential and that it is a domestic leader in the research and development of high-tech products, the supply of high-end technology, the improvement of business environment, and the facilitation of trade and investment.

They stressed that it is vital for the country to promote the integrated development of the YRD, and to help the region take a lead in creating a new development paradigm and become a national opening-up highland.

They said that Jiangsu and Hong Kong have improved their cooperative mechanisms on innovation, built a regional cooperative partnership featuring win-win outcomes, and signed over 30 cooperative agreements in the fields of modern services, technological research and development, logistics and transportation, information counseling, finance and insurance, stock exchanges services, tourism and service outsourcing.

In addition, people-to-people exchanges between the two regions have become more and more frequent.

The CPPCC members from Hong Kong said they have realized the importance and wide development prospect of deepening cooperation with Jiangsu to achieve win-win results, adding that they will work hard to elevate the cooperation between the two regions.