Shenzhen officials cancel meeting with Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on her metropolis plan at last minute
- Mainland China side pulls out of the sit-down, citing unexpected commitments and without rescheduling, source says
- Lam previously revealed she wanted to brief cadres on her plans for developing a Northern Metropolis, a vast development aimed at creating 68,000 jobs
Shenzhen officials cancelled a scheduled meeting with Hong Kong’s leader at the last minute on Thursday, depriving her of the opportunity to lay out her plans for the development of a vast metropolis near the border.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was supposed to brief top cadres in the Guangdong city on her ambitious blueprint for creating a Northern Metropolis. But the Shenzhen side pulled out citing unexpected commitments, a source told the Post, adding a new date had not been fixed.
Coincidentally, Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong was in Beijing earlier on Thursday morning for a press conference staged by the National Development and Reform Commission to update on the progress of Shenzhen’s programme of reforms.
Lam on Tuesday announced she would visit Shenzhen on Thursday after attending the opening of the China Import and Export Fair and the Pearl River International Trade Forum in Guangzhou earlier in the day.
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In a press release issued on Thursday night, the Hong Kong government said: “After [Lam’s] arrival in Guangzhou, [she] noted that the meeting with the Shenzhen leaders in Shenzhen originally scheduled for [Thursday] afternoon had to be cancelled. The governments of the two places will fix another date for the meeting.”
