Hong Kong Officials to Attend G20 Summit as
Chinese Delegation Members

For more information, please contact:
Melissa Ng / David Hsieh at 212-752-3320
Daniel McAtee at 202-238-6360
Wing Yan Tong at 415-835-9315

March 25, 2009 - Hong Kong Permanent Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Financial Services), Ms. Au King-chi, representing the Financial Secretary, Mr. John C. Tsang, will attend the G20 Leaders Summit together with the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr. Joseph Yam, in London on April 2. They will join as members of the Chinese delegation.

Mr. Tsang will stay in Hong Kong for the Legislative Council Debate on the Appropriation Bill 2009 on April 1 and 2.

Announcing the arrangement today, a government spokesman said that this would be the second time officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government had been invited to join the Chinese delegation at a summit meeting. Mr. Tsang and Mr. Yam attended the last summit in Washington last November.

The London Summit will build on the commitments made in Washington and set a course for world economic stability and recovery, helping restore global economic growth through enhanced international co-ordination.

The summit will discuss, among other things, the stabilizing of financial markets; strengthening of global financial and economic system and putting global economy on track for sustainable growth, high levels of employment and poverty reduction.

The spokesman said, “The participation of Hong Kong in the G20 Summit will help Hong Kong gain updated information on the global financial and economic situation and latest efforts by world leaders to tackle the financial crisis. This will be beneficial to formulating our own strategic plan in dealing with the current financial turmoil.”