ENG-2005 — Page 420

366 | Communications, the Media and Information Technology

showcasing some of Hong Kong's most recent productions, was held in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Vienna, Barcelona, Luxembourg and Stockholm. A Hong Kong Photo Exhibition was held at Brussels National Airport during the months of December 2005 and January 2006. It was estimated that around 970 000 passengers used the airport during the period.

London ETO organised Chinese New Year receptions in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Warsaw, Zurich, Budapest, Prague, Oslo, Moscow and St Petersburg (the last three including business seminars) and followed up with further seminars in Budapest and Warsaw in December. The Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the European Communities and the Director-General, London, also visited the 31 countries under their purview during the year, where they met senior officials and business leaders and gave interviews to the local media, informing them of current developments in Hong Kong.

North America

Mr Donald Tsang, met political leaders, think tanks, lobby groups and business people in Vancouver, New York and Washington DC in October during his first official overseas visit after his installation.

In speeches in all three cities, he updated his audiences on Hong Kong's political, economic and social developments and outlined the potential for visionary businesses to tap into the Pan-Pearl River Delta market of 460 million. In Vancouver, Mr Tsang and the Guangdong Governor, Mr Huang Huahua, hosted the Hong Kong- Guangdong Business Forum, the first joint large-scale promotion in Canada.

In New York Mr Tsang had a breakfast meeting with a group of distinguished business people and financiers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and gave a keynote speech at a luncheon attended by over 330 guests from the business, financial, academic and media sectors. He also had a cordial private meeting with former President Bill Clinton before setting off to Washington.

In Washington, he met the Vice-President, Mr Richard Cheney, the Secretary of State, Dr Condoleezza Rice, congressional leaders and prominent think tanks and later delivered a keynote address at the annual gala dinner of the Asia Society Washington Centre where he was honoured with the Asia Society Leadership Award.

The Financial Secretary visited New York in September to meet a number of senior officers and business leaders including the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit rating agencies and the US media.

After his New York round of meetings, he travelled on to Washington where he attended the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund and met Mr Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; Mr Allan Hubbard, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council; and Mr Robert Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State.

Mr Tang returned to the United States a month later to host the Hong Kong- Guangdong Business Conference: USA 2005 in San Francisco which attracted more than 1 000 participants from the business community in the Bay Area. He also took

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香港:

Hong Kong Trade Devera

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