Hong Kong should learn from and embrace the spirit of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and integrate it into daily life, Chief Executive John Lee said on Monday. More than 500 government officials, Executive Council members and lawmakers on Monday morning attended a seminar held at the government headquarters promoting the spirit of the plenum. The talks were led by Shen Chunyao, vice-chairman of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress and chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the country's top legislature, and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who's also the Secretary of the CPC leadership group of the Ministry of Commerce. The third plenum, which wrapped up last month in Beijing, adopted a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernisation. Speaking to reporters after the seminar, Lee said studying the spirit of the third plenum was beneficial to the SAR's long-term development. "We need to understand its importance and significance for Hong Kong's future development, seize the opportunities, and further leverage Hong Kong's advantages of being highly internationalised, market-oriented, and rule of law-based under the 'One Country, Two Systems' system," he said. "Hong Kong plays an irreplaceable role in the country's further reform and opening up. As a super connector and super value-adder, Hong Kong continues to play an important role as a bridge and window connecting the mainland and the world in going global and bringing in [enterprises]." Asked about measures to attract high-end talent from around the world, Lee said the SAR government had introduced a series of programmes to bring in graduates from top universities. The CE said there were 340,000 applications for the Top Talent Pass Scheme so far, of which 210,000 had been approved.
