The Central Government strongly supports the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in its efforts to tide over its current economic difficulties for the betterment of its economic performance, a senior official said in Hong Kong Wednesday.

Gao Siren, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), pledged that the liaison office will make further efforts with a view to facilitating and serving for the implementation of the Mainland/Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).

Gao made the remarks while meeting with the Guangdong delegation attending the sixth Hong Kong-Guangdong cooperation joint conference, which is headed by the governor of Guangdong Province Huang Huahua.

Gao commended the Guangdong Province for the importance it has placed with CEPA, a manifestation of which being the sixth Hong Kong-Guangdong cooperation joint conference, which has scored substantial achievements.

Huang expressed belief that the joint conference, held with the support and under the care of the Central Government, will surely promote the economic cooperation between Hong Kong and Guangdong, and benefit the people of the two places.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2003)