Interview: 'I Always Feel Pleased in Helping Develop my Country'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 28, 2003

Interview: 'I Always Feel Pleased in Helping Develop my Country'

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"The 21st century witnessed rapid high-tech development. However, the common development of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland is based on the in-depth communication between people of both places," said Sophie Leung, newly-elected deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and member of Hong Kong Legislative Council.

She stressed to Xinhua lately that Hong Kong and the mainland can obtain timely opportunities for development by more contacts and in-depth exchanges with one another.

"As a new NPC deputy, I will push ahead the exchanges between personnel of economic, educational and cultural circles, as cooperation and development are all based on understanding of each other," she added.

Acting concurrently as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government textile policy adviser, chairperson of Hong Kong Women's Commission and President of Young Entrepreneurs Development Council, she expected to play a more active role in promoting exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Sophie Leung is also to seek ways during the coming NPC session in Beijing next month for overcoming various difficulties in developmet faced by Hong Kong.

She, an expert of textile industry, has acted once as advisor of Hong Kong delegation to the United States for textile quota talks and achieved great success.

She then joined the Textile Council of Hong Kong and other associations to further push forward the industry.

During the NPC session, she said she would visit old friends to learn their views on the state affairs. "Contact with friends can bring new information and new information can provide new opportunities," she believed.

Major in mathematics and computer science in University of Illinois, Sophie Leung not only thinks logically, but challenges herself by engaging in an entirely new trade.

She had worked for a US hospital in detecting tumors in human body, then drafted plans for establishing Hong Kong's second generation of computer systems, then run fashion companies with her husbands, and then acted as chairperson of some hospitals in Hong Kong.

She realized her dream of learning new trades gradually and improved herself steadily.

Born in Macao in 1945 and moved here in her childhood, she managed at 15 to write sales promotion letter for her father and went to the US Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong for addresses to overseas textile businessmen.

In a dark blue western style suit, she is pretty and capable. She works over 10 hours a day and reads documents for another 2 hours before sleep. "I am happy and feel fulfilling myself as I face challenges every day."

Since 1993, she and her husband have invested 23 million HK dollars (2.9 million US dollars) in three ventures in Shunde City,Guangdong Province. The three ventures started making profits a few years ago.

"However, I have not taken a penny home from those ventures," she said. Instead, they have donated five million HK dollars (641,000 US dollars) to the Xitan Middle School and offered another 3.5million HK dollars for setting up a scholarship in the school.

She said she had talked with a company from the "Silicon Valley" over building a bio-pharmaceutical venture in the mainland. "I always feel pleased in helping develop my country," she smiled.

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