Hong Kong Opens International Clinical Trial Institute to Enhance Biomedical Innovation in Greater Bay Area.

2024-11-21 10:50 Last Updated At：17:28

Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute officially opened in Hong Kong Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone

The Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute (GBAICTI), established and wholly owned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, was officially opened today (November 21) in the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone (HTCZ). The Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trials Center of the Shenzhen Municipality was also officially opened in the Shenzhen Park on the same day. The establishment of "one institute, one center" marked the first benchmark for co-ordinated development under "one zone, two parks" of the HTCZ.

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Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute officially opened in Hong Kong Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute officially opened in Hong Kong Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing; the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau; Deputy Director of the Public Hygiene and Health Commission of Shenzhen Municipality Mr Li Jieyun; and the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health), Dean of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and representative of the GBAICTI's operator, Professor Lau Chak-sing, officiated at the opening ceremony of the GBAICTI.

Mr Cheuk said that the National 14th Five-Year Plan indicated clear support to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub. The Development Plan for Shenzhen Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone also expressed staunch support for the co-ordinated development of technological innovation of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. With its strategic location in the Hetao area, the GBAICTI officially opened today will bring into full play Hong Kong's unique advantages of a high degree of internationalisation, high-level healthcare professions and scientific research. Joining hands with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the GBAICTI will spare no effort to develop new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions by promoting clinical trials and development of the biomedical technologies industry, hence serving the nation's needs with the strengths of Hong Kong.

The Director General of the Public Hygiene and Health Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, Ms Wu Hongyan,in her video speech congratulated on the official establishment of the GBAICTI in Hong Kong, and expressed her hope for close integration between Hong Kong and Shenzhen to capitalise on the strengths of the two places in the areas of industry, translation, market, talent and scientific research through the establishment of "one institute, one center", building together a high-level clinical trial service platform.

The GBAICTI will co-ordinate clinical trial resources in local public and private sectors, including those from the Hospital Authority (HA), private healthcare institutions and universities, serving as a one-stop clinical trial support platform for medical research institutions while streamlining workflow, driving training for talent and collaboration across the GBA on all fronts. Multiple projects will be rolled out in phases, including establishing the Hong Kong Clinical Trial Digital Portal, founding the Clinical Trial Academy, collaborating with the Department of Health (DH) and the HA to have the time for approval and application of drugs reduced to a level with competitiveness in the world. At the same time, the GBAICTI will establish strategic partnerships with healthcare and biomedical institutions, including the Hong Kong Genome Institute, to leverage its genome database primarily acquired from the Southern Chinese population, spur the opening up of the HA's medical databases to support clinical trials, and attract enterprises of advanced biomedical technologies (such as gene therapy, cell therapy, radioligand therapy and new vaccine technology platforms) within and outside of Hong Kong to set up their operations in Hetao for research and development (R&D), and translation.

The GBAICTI will be a key hub for clinical trial network co-operation between Hong Kong and the Mainland. The GBAICTI will establish the GBA Clinical Trial Collaboration Platform under the "one zone, two parks" model together with the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trials Center, which was officially opened today in the Shenzhen Park under the operation of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation, to extend the research and development network and expedite clinical trials. With a population base of over 86 million within the GBA, the platform will provide support to medical research institutions within and outside Hong Kong and co-ordinate the launch of multicentre cross-boundary clinical trials that can meet both national and international standards.

Through open tender, The HKSAR Government has designated the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the HKU, which has extensive international experiences in clinical trials, to operate the GBAICTI. The temporary office of the GBAICTI is located at the Central Government-Aided Emergency Hospital in the Hetao area, covering nearly 7 000 square feet and equipped with an affiliated biobank managed by the HA and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Having two liquid nitrogen storage systems and 11 ultra-low temperature freezers set up, the biobank has a capacity to store over 400 000 samples (such as tissues, blood, cells and DNA).

In the days to come, the GBAICTI is expected to move into one of the wet laboratory-enabled buildings in the Hong Kong Park (i.e. the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park) to provide a platform with more diverse and comprehensive clinical trial facilities and services. The GBAICTI will have a better integration with the complete biomedical technologies R&D and technology industry chain in the GBA, and capitalise on the nation's special policy initiatives that are favourable to Hong Kong, such as the measure of using Hong Kong-registered drugs and medical devices used in Hong Kong public hospitals in the GBA and relevant cross-boundary facilitation measures. That will help Hong Kong to fully leverage its role as a "super connector" enjoying strong support of the Motherland and being closely connected to the world, and promote the Hetao area as a window for translation of innovative biomedical research results to attract overseas enterprises and facilitate Mainland enterprises to go global, thus expediting patients' access to advanced treatments in the GBA and promoting new quality productive forces.

Also attending today's opening ceremony were the Permanent Secretary for Health and Director of the GBAICTI Limited, Mr Thomas Chan; the Under Secretary for Health, Dr Libby Lee; the Chairman of the HA, Mr Henry Fan; the Chief Executive of the HA, Dr Tony Ko; and the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the CUHK, Professor Allen Chan.

Financial Secretary Emphasizes Innovation, Inclusivity, and AI in CUHK EMBA Conference Speech

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

Hong Kong Opens International Clinical Trial Institute to Enhance Biomedical Innovation in Greater Bay Area.

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