A reception to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the Chinese motherland was held in Singapore on Wednesday.

More than 150 political, business and Chinese community leaders, including Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Minister for Community, Youth and Sports, K.K Lam, Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore, attended the reception organized by the Chinese Embassy in Singapore.

On behalf of the Chinese government, Ambassador Zhang Xiaokang said, over the past 10 years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has made "One Country, Two systems" a successfully glaring reality which has now been recognized by the whole world.

"Looking into the future, though Hong Kong may still face new challenges ahead, we firmly believe that Hong Kong will surely be capable of taking on those challenges and doing well," Zhang said, pointing out that Hong Kong has been backed by continuous development of the motherland and has its own rich international experience and extensive world connectivity to draw on.

Balakrishnan echoed the ambassador's remarks, saying that "Ten years on, the performance of the SAR has proved the success of the 'One Country, Two Systems' formula."

Singapore and Hong Kong have maintained a cooperative and complementary relationship, with substantial commercial activities underpinning the bilateral economic ties, the minister said.

Statistics show that Hong Kong is the third largest export market and the fourth largest foreign direct investment source of Singapore while Singapore is Hong Kong's sixth largest trading partner as well.

Source: Xinhua