COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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The units also handle numerous public and business enquiries on all types of issues. To supplement this service, a monthly digest of events and happenings in Hong Kong is produced and mailed to contacts throughout North America. The units participate in a variety of exhibitions and seminars to establish further contact with the electronic and print media, and to publicise Hong Kong. The units also monitor coverage of relevant issues in the American and Canadian news media.
To further strengthen Hong Kong-United States ties, the Governor, the Right Honourable Christopher Patten, made his first official visit to the United States in May. During his visit to Washington, the Governor met the United States President Mr Bill Clinton, the Senate Majority Leader Mr George Mitchell, various cabinet members and congressional leaders. He then travelled to New York to meet leading members of the business and financial community.
In the United States, a public relations firm is also used to implement a public relations plan and strategy for Hong Kong. It also assists with organising speaking platforms and tours for visiting speakers from Hong Kong and senior officers of the Economic and Trade Offices in North America.
Europe
Among its responsibilities, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels is charged with overseeing the government's public relations and publicity efforts in the European Community and its member states (except the United Kingdom, which is the responsibility of the London Office), and in Switzerland and Austria. The public relations and press team in the office works closely with Hong Kong and the 'Hong Kong family' in Europe to give information about the territory to contacts in both the public and private sectors and in the media in Europe, to develop and sustain their interest in Hong Kong affairs. The Brussels team also monitors and collects information appearing in the European media which is of relevance or importance to Hong Kong.
Under the sponsored visitors programme, the Brussels Office invites opinion leaders and decision-makers from the European Commission, the governments of member states and major European businesses to visit Hong Kong, to enable them to have a better understanding of the territory's needs and importance. Members of the European Parliament and European media are also included in this programme. In addition, the Brussels Office arranges speaking engagements in many EC countries for senior Hong Kong Government officials and leading members of the Hong Kong community, to explain recent developments.
The biggest promotion Hong Kong has ever staged in continental Europe, Hong Kong '93, was held towards the end of the year. The promotion was centred on Hong Kong's major trading partners in the region - Germany, France and the Netherlands.
The highlights included a film festival in Paris, jointly organised with the famous La Cinematheque Française, and featuring 20 top Hong Kong films from the early 1980s to the present; an exhibition on Hong Kong architecture, arranged in association with the prestigious German Museum of Architecture in Frankfurt, displaying models and design plans of some of Hong Kong's dazzling skyscrapers, such as the Bank of China building and the HongkongBank building; and special functions in The Hague, featuring the Academy for Performing Arts, and in Paris, where Hong Kong's designers took centre stage with some of their latest fashion creations. A series of business conferences with the theme 'Hong Kong Means Business' was also held in Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.