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Speech for Mr Allan CHIANG, the Postmaster General, at the "Development of the Pearl River Delta Region" Special Stamps Issuing Ceremony
Ms CHOI, Mr ALEXANDER, distinguished guests and friends from the media,
Good morning, welcome to the issuing ceremony of the "Development of the Pearl River Delta Region" Special Stamps.
Talking about the economic integration with the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) region, it could be traced back as early as the 1980s when local investment flowed into Guangdong, our naturally well-endowed neighbourhood where production cost was relatively lower. The cost of doing business in Hong Kong may be a little higher, but our strengths, in fact, lie in people, capital, technology and market knowledge. The combined strengths and synergy of Guangdong and Hong Kong together with Macao's thriving entertainment and tourism industry have played and will continue to play a pivotal role in sustaining the rapid growth of the GPRD region.
Communication and delivery is essential to the region's sustained growth, hence Hongkong Post, Macao Post and Guangdong Postal Bureau have devotedly partnered to play their supporting role for the benefits of the GPRD development. Take the outbound letters and parcels for Mainland China. Over 50% of them are destined to Guangdong Province and Guangzhou becomes the processing hub of our Mainland-bound mails, air and surface alike. As for mails to and from Macao, the majority of them have to come to Hong Kong for processing and distribution.
Off and on, new added-valued services have been jointly rolled out among the three postal administrations for the GPRD region and the rest of the mainland to boost trading activities. Take the Gift Fulfilment Service that we launched with Guangdong Postal Bureau at the start of the year. Customers are invited to order any gift packages on the list for their mainland friends, relatives and business partners for most occasions. As for important festivals like Chinese New Year or Mid-Autumn, festive presents will be specially arranged for customer order. During the process, we take charge of the orders while our counterparts do all the deliveries. Hand in hand, we manage to provide our customers with satisfactory fulfilment service.
As sustainability starts with solidarity, we attach importance to experience sharing for continual improvement. For example, in the course of last Universal Postal Union meeting at Romania, heads of Guangdong Postal Bureau and Macao Post and I juggled the schedule a little so that we could have some discussions on further co-operation issues. Time after time, visits and tours to offices of Guangdong Postal Bureau by our best staff have also been conducted. Apart from official meetings at conferences and workplaces, regular football matches are also held among us for closer ties. It is encouraged to see solidarity attained and friendship promoted after every match.
The issue of "Development of the Pearl River Delta Region" Special Stamps today features the speedy development of the region, particularly in the aspects of infrastructure, logistics, tourism and business. PRD Region integration has once been good but is no longer good enough now. A greater hinterland as big as the Pan-PRD region is what we head for. "Backed by the Mainland and Engaged Globally" is not only the right way to go for Hong Kong but for Hongkong Post as well. Hence, we are committed to grasp every opportunity to step up co-operation with every single mainland postal administration for new businesses and new services and have our Corporate Statement "Linking People, Delivering Business" fully realised.
Thank you.