15th Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Co-operation Meeting held today (with photos)

The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing; the Director General of the Department of Culture of Guangdong Province, Mr Fang Jianhong; and the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR), Mr Ung Vai-meng, attended the 15th Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Co-operation Meeting held in Guangzhou today (June 15).

The Deputy Secretary General of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Mr Lin Ji, and representatives from the Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Culture attended the meeting and witnessed the signing of The Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Exchange and Co-operation Development Plan 2014-2018 by Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau. About 100 delegates including officials and representatives of the relevant arts and cultural authorities and organisations in the three places joined the meeting and related activities.

"The time frame covered by 'The Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Exchange and Co-operation Development Plan 2014-2018' signed today is crucial for cultural development in Hong Kong and the Mainland. In the coming five years, the Batch One facilities of the West Kowloon Cultural District and the cultural facilities in other areas will be completed successively, providing Hong Kong citizens with new cultural opportunities and meeting demand. For the motherland, the coming five years will be the final sprint of the first 'Hundred Years', closely approaching the completion of a well-off society. The cultural establishment will scale new heights. The new five-year plan established by the three places will be able to develop the advantages of the three places strategically," Mr Tsang said in his concluding remarks.

He stressed that several areas of the tripartite cultural co-operation were particularly important, including the nurturing and exchanges of artists, the strategy to promote high-quality projects and co-establish artistic branding, and the development of a healthy and attractive internet culture.

In the coming year, the three places will continue to strengthen exchanges and co-operation on public libraries, intangible cultural heritage and connections between public cultural service mechanisms. The three places will also study the launch of a mobile app. With regard to cultural and creative industries, the three places have also put forward a number of collaborative items to enhance co-operation for further development of industries.

The Department of Culture of Guangdong Province, the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR have established a cultural framework within the Greater Pearl River Delta region. An agreement on cultural co-operation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau was signed in August 2003 and six working groups have been set up to implement and follow up on the recommendations for co-operation in different areas.

The sessions of the six working groups were held yesterday afternoon (June 14) to discuss specific topics, namely exchanges for performing artists and co-organisation of cultural programmes, exchange of cultural information, co-operation in museum services, co-operation and exchange in public libraries, intangible cultural heritage, and co-operation of cultural and creative industries.

Sunday, June 15, 2014