Top officials, political and business leaders have paid tribute to the city’s first Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, as a private vigil was held on Saturday at the Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point.

A photograph of Tung - who passed away on September 8 at the age of 89 - was placed at the centre of the funeral hall.

Chief Executive John Lee, as well as former SAR leaders Donald Tsang, CY Leung and Carrie Lam were among those who attended the vigil to pay their final respect to Tung.

Political and business heavyweights, including Thomas and Raymond Kwok of Sun Hung Kai Properties, and David Li, Executive Chairman of the Bank of East Asia were also present.

On top of the three condolence books that have been open to the public to sign since Friday, a temporary one was also set up in North Point on Saturday.

Lam Kwong-siu, vice chairman of Bank of China (BOC) International, visited the condolence point at the Moreton Terrace Activities Centre in Causeway Bay to sign the book.

He recalled the time when he experienced the financial crisis with Tung back in 1997, adding that the late chief executive had made indelible contributions to Hong Kong.

Lam said Tung had been a long term client of BOC.

“He worked in the shipping industry. In order to step up communication, sometimes he would invite us to his mansion to carry out exchanges on Hong Kong’s economic situation, on how BOC could serve Hong Kong’s One Country, Two Systems,” he said.

“Because we communicated with each other and came to understand each other, BOC was able to coordinate with him directly. Even after he became the chief executive, he still cared a lot about us.”

A public memorial service for Tung will be held on Sunday.




Edited by Azam Khan