"Hong Kong continues to be high on the agenda in the UK", visiting UK minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs Ian McCartney said Tuesday.

In a speech to the audience of Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, McCartney said the trade relationship between UK and Hong Kong is thriving with UK's exports to Hong Kong reaching 3 billion pounds last year for the first time since 1997, when Hong Kong returned to China.

Besides, senior officials from UK, such as Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Minister for education and Minister for trade, visited Hong Kong one after another in the last few months, a proof that the government of UK cares much about Hong Kong's prosperity and human rights.

McCartney devoted a major proportion of his speech to environment protection, saying "Environmental sustainability and economic success are two sides of the same coin."

He encouraged Hong Kong government to use innovative ways to achieve its target of increasing the proportion of renewable energy up to 2 percent of its total energy consumption by 2010.

McCartney arrived in Hong Kong on Monday for a two-day visit followed by a regional trip to Beijing, Chengdu in China, Tokyo in Japan and Seoul in South Korea.

Source: Xinhua