Press Release - September 20, 2006

The Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) in Canada, Mr Bassanio So, today (Wednesday) met Nova Scotia Minister of Economic Development, the Hon Richard Hurlburt, during a duty visit in Halifax.

Mr So briefed Minister Richard Hurlburt on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government�s efforts in developing information technology and biotechnology, and gave an update on the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) which was set up to spearhead Hong Kong�s drive to become a world-class, knowledge-based economy.

Mr So told the Minister the ITC initiatives to set up six centers to conduct industry-oriented R&D; and promote technology transfer and commercialization of research outputs, thereby enhancing industry competitiveness and fostering long-term technology development in these areas.

Mr So also encouraged the IT and biotechnology companies in Nova Scotia to collaborate with these centers to commercialize their products when expanding their market to China.

Accompanying Mr So at the meeting was the Regional Director, Americas, of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Mr Stephen Wong who took the opportunity to brief Minister Richard Hurlburt on the services provided by the HKTDC (www.tdctrade.com) in Canada - sourcing, market intelligence, business matching, and organization of trade missions to Hong Kong.

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For more information, please contact:
Stephen Siu, Assistant Director (Public Relations) of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office at: (416)924-5544 or email: [email protected] or Elison Chu, Senior Information Officer, at [email protected]

Photo shows (from left to right) the Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in Canada, Mr Bassanio So; Nova Scotia Minister of Economic Development, the Hon Richard Hurlburt; the Regional Director, Americas, of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Mr Stephen Wong; and the Chairman of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association (Atlantic chapter), Ms Kam Chung, in Halifax today (Wednesday).

Click here to download a Chinese version of this press release in PDF format.