Writing in his blog today, Chan said he exchanged views with the students from the University of Malaya and Singapore National University during his trip to Malaysia and Singapore last week, with many of them expressing interest in the development opportunities in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area along the measures to attract talents and investments.

He said that local business leaders were optimistic regarding the significant improvement and the vitality of the economic and social atmosphere of Hong Kong, adding that they believe the city will recover well from the pandemic and are willing to enter the Chinese market through Hong Kong.

Chan noted that some might be worried about the negative effects brought by the rivalries of other countries, but he believes opportunities could also be found through healthy competition.

He ended by saying that Hong Kong can strengthen cooperation with the two countries to jointly develop the mainland and the ASEAN markets.