CSTB announces series of giant panda promotion activities
Since the arrival of another pair of giant pandas, An An and Ke Ke (their current names), gifted by the Central Government to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a craze for giant pandas has sparked across the city. An An and Ke Ke are currently acclimatising to the new living environment and are in good condition. They are expected to meet the public within December this year.
In order to create a joyful atmosphere for welcoming the giant pandas, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau (CSTB), jointly with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and Ocean Park Hong Kong (OPHK), will collaborate with various parties in Hong Kong to organise a series of promotional activities themed Come and Enjoy a Pandastic Hong Kong. The new Hong Kong giant panda family will serve as Hong Kong's tourism ambassadors in promoting "tourism is everywhere in Hong Kong" experience, attracting visitors from all over the world to Hong Kong and thus driving tourism development.
The CSTB will collaborate with various sectors of the society and the tourism industry to launch various promotional initiatives. One of the key events is the HELLO PANDAS Carnival, an outdoor event themed around giant pandas to be held from December 11 to 21 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazzas. Jointly organised by the China Tourism Group, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong as well as The Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, and undertaken by the China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, the Carnival will feature a diverse range of activities, including art installations, interactive performance, cultural and creative fair, photography exhibition. The Carnival will be open to all for free.
The CSTB and the HKTB also fully support the large-scale event PANDA GO! FEST HK hosted by a creative brand ARR (AllRightsReserved). A giant panda roving exhibition will be staged on three consecutive Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays starting from December 7. More details about the event will be announced shortly.
In addition, the CSTB and the HKTB will also produce a new television promotional video, in which the giant panda family and their friends will experience four unique tours in Hong Kong, including (1) explore the stunning world-class natural scenery; (2) enjoy delicious food from all over the world from local food to Michelin-award-winning restaurants; (3) indulge in the artistic atmosphere of world-class cultural museums and art galleries; and (4) experience the excitement of major events at Kai Tak Sports Park. The HKTB will also use the same theme of the event to stimulate a craze for giant pandas across the city. The six giant pandas can be seen in MTR stations, the Central Pier, the Mid-Levels escalators, and large outdoor advertisements in downtown areas.
The Government will continue to seize the opportunity brought by the arrival of the giant pandas and connect different sectors of the society to actively plan and launch more promotional activities related to the giant pandas, thereby generating business opportunities for different sectors and boosting the economy.
CSTB announces series of giant panda promotion activities Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
CSTB announces series of giant panda promotion activities Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
CSTB announces series of giant panda promotion activities Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
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.
Source: AI-found images
Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Source: AI-found images
