Delivering his speech at the International Bay Area Summit 2023 on Monday, Lee said Hong Kong is now developing in full steam the Northern Metropolis - a new international I&T city straddling the boundary between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The chief executive said the Northern Metropolis will take up an area about one-third the size of Hong Kong.

“It will not only provide much-needed land for the advancement of innovation and technology, but also create a platform that pools together local talents and experts from other GBA cities and overseas,” he said.

Lee added that the development of this scale takes good engineering, in which the city has been delivering world-class infrastructure and urban development to support social and economic development and enhance the long-term competitiveness of Hong Kong.

He also noted that Hong Kong will uplift her overall productivity and sustainability by adopting high productivity construction methods such as Modular Integrated Construction.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong leader stressed that the GBA is a cluster city development that brings together Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in the province of Guangdong.

“It has a combined population of over 86 million people and a GDP of over US$1.9 trillion in 2021. The development deepens co-operation amongst Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and leverages the complementary advantages of the three places to promote regional economic development,” said Lee.