SK (Deputy Chairman, Hong Kong Management Association, Mr SK CHEONG), Sunny (Chairman, Organising Committee, HKMA/HKT Global Innovation Award, Ir Sunny LEE), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. It is my great honour to join you all on this significant event of the HKMA Global Innovation Day. Very soon, the list of finalists to the second edition of the HKMA/HKT Global Innovation Award will be unveiled. May I take the opportunity to congratulate the top performers on their first-stage success, and wish them all the best as they will be embarking on their new journey towards the final pitching to be held in January next year.

I still recall sharing the joy of the success of the inaugural edition of the Award when I attended its Award Presentation Ceremony last year. The last edition of the Award attracted a great number of entries from a wide spectrum of industries, ranging from multi-national corporations, SMEs, start-ups, NGOs, to government departments. For this edition, over 270 entries have been received. Among them, around 15% come from the Mainland, Canada, Macau, Pakistan, Singapore and the USA. From this demographic information, I am glad that the Award has generated strong interests not only from the local innovation ecosystem, but also from other economies of the world.

With the support of the National 14th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong is determined to develop into an international innovation and technology (I&T) centre. We are committed to nurturing an innovation ecosystem that is conducive to research and development (R&D) bringing about scientific breakthroughs and research outcomes that are sustainable and marketable. As announced in the 2024 Policy Address last week, the Government will set up a $10 billion I&T Industry-Oriented Fund to form a fund-of-funds to channel more market capital to invest specified emerging and future industries of strategy importance, including life and health technology, artificial intelligence and robotics, etc.. Furthermore, to enhance Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem, the Government will optimise the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund by redeploying $1.5 billion to set up funds jointly with the market, on a matching basis, to invest in start-ups of strategic industries. The Government will also allocate $180 million to launch the Pilot I&T Accelerator Scheme at a one-to-two matching ratio between the Government and the institution to attract professional start-up service providers with proven track records from local and outside Hong Kong to set up accelerator bases in Hong Kong.

On digital infrastructure, Cyberport is working full steam on developing an AI Supercomputing Centre to help support the computing demand of academia, research institutes and relevant industries. The first phase of the facility will come into operation by the end of the year. To leverage the computing power of this new facility, the Government allocated $3 billion to launch a three-year AI Subsidy Scheme to groom our AI industry. Starting from this month, local universities, R&D centres and AI-related enterprises can apply under the subsidy scheme to help achieve their scientific breakthroughs by leveraging the computing power of the new facility. Eligible applicants may generally be subsidised up to 70% of the service list price of the facility.

With I&T emerging as a key engine that drives global economy and society towards high‑quality development, the Government will continue to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to grasp the many opportunities that I&T brings to us in this digital era, and encourage digital transformation, which will in turn help boost our economy, improve our living quality and increase work efficiency.

Before I close, may I wish the event a big success, and every one of you finds it inspiring and fruitful through the insightful sharing of speakers. Thank you.

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