Chinese President Hu Jintao started his three-day visit to Hong Kong Friday to attend the celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of the territory's return to China, as well as the swearing-in ceremony of the fourth successive government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Hu told spectators at Hong Kong International Airport that the central government is willing to work with Hong Kongers from all walks of life to draw upon their "precious experiences" in carrying out the "one country, two systems" policy over the past 15 years for further development.

Hu, who is also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in the HKSAR at Shek Kong barracks Friday afternoon.

In the company of Zhang Shibo, commander of the local PLA garrison, Hu inspected 15 formations of more than 3,000 soldiers, from infantry to helicopters.

Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong's incoming chief executive, who also greeted President Hu at the airport with current chief executive Donald Tsang, will assume office on July 1.

You Anshan, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Studies Center under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Hu's trip to Hong Kong will strengthen the new government's confidence upon taking office, and is expected to bring in more preferential financial policies to support the region's economic development.

Hong Kong's GDP per capita has grown from $27,000 in 2007 to the current $35,000, and from 2004 to 2011, the region's GDP maintained a steady 5 percent growth, almost twice the figure of other developed areas, according to a statement by Tsang quoted by the Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News.

The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong also signed on Friday the ninth supplement to the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), first signed in 2003, pledging to further open service sectors to each other and consolidate trade and economic ties.

It provides for a total of 43 measures for services liberalization and is aimed at promoting the mutual recognition of professional qualifications between Hong Kong and the mainland.

The new agreement will increase the number of fully opened-up service sectors to 48. This means a boost for Hong Kong, where the service sector contributes more than 90 percent of annual output.