Lawmakers from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region continued their study visit in Beijing on Thursday, attending a lecture on the Constitution and studying local practices in technology innovation, legislation for grassroots governance, and urban renewal.

They said they would apply these lessons to their legislative work to better support Hong Kong’s emerging industries.

For the first time since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland in 1997, all members of the city’s Legislative Council arrived in the capital on Sunday, kicking off a weeklong trip to systematically learn about the country’s development.

On Thursday morning, lawmakers attended a seminar on improving the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, with a focus on the Constitution. In the afternoon, they split into four groups to draw on local experience.

Two groups visited projects employing the new quality productive forces strategy, including a new energy vehicle plant, and robotics and embodied intelligence developers. One of the other two groups toured Nanmofang Township in Chaoyang district to learn about legislation for grassroots governance, while the other visited Longfu Temple Historical and Cultural District in Dongcheng district to study the local authorities’ efforts in urban revitalization and cultural conservation.

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LegCo President Starry Lee Wai-king said in a social media post that while the HKSAR — the country's only common law jurisdiction — may have a different legal system from the Chinese mainland, both share the principle that good laws enable good governance and that the legal system is the bedrock of development and stability — with serving the people's interests as the ultimate guide. She pledged to work with lawmakers to improve legislative quality and efficiency, and to step up exchanges with their mainland counterparts.

She also said that LegCo is learning from the nation’s experience about how it can boost legislation in emerging fields and thus speed up new technology and industry growth.

Lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan said that the morning lecture highlighted the need to strengthen legislation in key, emerging and foreign-related areas, covering the digital economy and artificial intelligence. Steady progress in national rule of law development is providing a solid institutional foundation for innovation and technology, he said.  

After touring a new energy vehicle plant in the afternoon, Chan said that the experience could be used to improve the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s innovation ecosystem, especially in terms of speeding up the construction of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone. He said he would continue pushing ahead with relevant work on future policy reviews and resources allocation.

Contact the writer at gangwen@chinadailyhk.com