Professor Sun Dong Highlights Hong Kong's Innovation Journey at MWC 2025 Keynote

Keynote speech by SITI at GSMA Ministerial Programme of Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona

Following is the keynote speech by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, at the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) Ministerial Programme of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, Spain on March 5 (Barcelona time):

Distinguished speakers, guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Buenas tardes! Good afternoon! It is a privilege to join you all at the MWC Barcelona 2025, Europe's pre-eminent mobile tech summit hosted in the fascinating city of Barcelona.

Renowned for its architectural brilliance and rich cultural tapestry, Barcelona is undoubtedly a beacon of creativity in Europe. More than ten thousand kilometers away, Hong Kong shares the same dynamic spirit and strong commitment to innovation. This brings me here today to share with you Hong Kong's innovation and technology (I&T) landscape as well as opportunities that connect people around the world.

Hong Kong: Our odyssey to be an International I&T Centre

Well known for the free, international and business-friendly environment, Hong Kong ranks first in Asia and third in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index. The success of this Asia's World City is our spirit of embracing changes and evolving with times.

The theme of this year's MWC Barcelona, "Converge, Connect, Create", aptly encapsulates the key directions of Hong Kong's new mission. We are racing to become an international I&T centre, as enshrined in our I&T Development Blueprint promulgated in 2022. We strive to perfect Hong Kong's I&T ecosystem with conducive policies to support the development of strategic tech industries, including AI and robotics, life and health technologies, new energy and advanced manufacturing industries.

The Blueprint not only converges and connects our game plan on technological innovation and talent cultivation, but also creates new impetus to Hong Kong's high quality development and enhances our citizens' quality of life with day-to-day convenience brought about by technology innovation.

Bridging the digital divide by building a Smart City and a Digital Inclusive Society

Hong Kong is among the world's top 20 smart cities in the Smart City Index released by the IMD (International Institute for Management Development). One of the board development direction set out in our I&T Blueprint is to promote digital economy and develop Hong Kong into a smart city. Over the years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has rolled out various measures to make Hong Kong a more advanced and livable smart city, such as developing new digital infrastructure, opening up public data, and enhancing government services by applying advanced technologies such as blockchain and IoT (Internet of Things).

Indeed, one of the best testimonies to a city's I&T achievement is the degree of digitalisation. In Hong Kong, all submissions and payments to the Government have electronic options. More than three millions of people are enjoying the convenience and efficiency of accessing government services and online identity verification through a mobile application called "iAM Smart". A corporate version of "iAM Smart", nick-named CorpID, is upcoming too.

Known for the cultural diversity and international landscape, digital inclusiveness is an area that we take pride in. In Hong Kong, where the household broadband penetration rate and smartphone penetration rate are both approximately 97 per cent, the internet usage rate among Hong Kong citizens aged 65 and above rocketed, from 56 per cent in 2018 to 84 per cent in 2023, slightly ahead of the European rate of around 78 per cent.

Hong Kong's life expectancy has seen a steady increase over the past half century, reaching 83 years for men and 88 years for women in 2023. As society becomes so digitally knitted and increasingly mobile, we recently launched the "Smart Silver" Digital Inclusion Programme for Elders, to address the challenges of an increasingly aging society. This programme fortifies our digital inclusive efforts by providing elders with community-based training and on-the-spot helpdesks to enhance elders' knowledge on new digital technologies and support their navigation by common mobile applications.

Hong Kong's Research and Development (R&D) Excellence driving global I&T collaboration

Global collaboration is a necessity to tackle unprecedented challenges. Hong Kong is the only city in the world housing five of the world's top 100 universities, providing a readily available pool of R&D capabilities, know-how and talent. These favourable conditions make possible many scientific and technological breakthroughs by harnessing cutting-edge innovations from both the East and the West.

You may wish to know that our flagship R&D initiative - InnoHK has built collaboration with more than 30 world-renowned universities and research institutes from 12 economies, set up a total of 30 research laboratories. Of these, 16 of them focus on AI and robotics-related technologies. Our goal is to converge top-notch researchers from all over the world to conduct world-class and impactful collaborative researches.

The vigorous development of AI is reshaping global economic landscape. Our AI Supercomputing Centre has just commenced operation, and the computing power will be ramped up gradually to 3 000 petaFLOPS this year. Newly announced in our annual Government Budget last week, we will earmark $1 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 120 million euros, for the establishment of the Hong Kong AI Research and Development Institute. Hong Kong stands ready to play a full role in promoting global I&T collaboration.

Hong Kong: an Ideal Home to I&T enterprises and start-ups

In fact, Hong Kong stands in a prime location for I&T and business collaborations. With the distinctive advantages of "one country, two systems", over 1 400 companies from outside Hong Kong have set up regional headquarters in Hong Kong, including some global tech giants. Our strategic location and unique role as a "super-connector" and "super value-adder" empower them to tap into the vast markets of Mainland China including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Asia-Pacific region and also the Belt-and-Road countries.

Hong Kong is also an ideal home for breeding I&T start-ups. According to the Global Start-up Ecosystem Report 2024, Hong Kong ranks first in Asia and third globally among the top 100 emerging ecosystems. As of 2024, the number of start-ups in Hong Kong has surged to about 4 700, reaching the record highs.

Our two I&T flagships, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the digital tech-oriented Cyberport, provide robust support for start-ups through various incubation programmes. They also offer opportunities for start-ups to participate in I&T mega events, which include, of course, the MWC Barcelona. If you are interested in discovering Hong Kong's vibrant I&T scene, be sure to visit the Hong Kong Tech Pavilion at Hall 6 and speak to our tech ventures there.

Concluding remarks

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope my sharing just now could vividly show the colours of Hong Kong's I&T scene, just like the beautiful city of Barcelona. Seeing is believing. I welcome you all to Hong Kong to explore more on our robust digital infrastructure, smart city initiatives and digital economy development.

Before I close, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to GSMA for inviting me to the Ministerial Programme. I wish everyone here a fruitful exchange. Gracias! Thank you!

Keynote speech by SITI at GSMA Ministerial Programme of Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Latest figures of primary healthcare services provided by Health Bureau to residents affected by Tai Po Wang Fuk Court fire

The Health Bureau (HHB) announced earlier the medical support provided for residents affected by the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. At present, the District Health Centres/District Health Centre Expresses (collectively referred to as DHCs) across all 18 districts in Hong Kong serve as hubs to co-ordinate various primary healthcare services as needed for the affected residents. The HHB announced today (January 15) the latest figures of these services:

DHC hotlines

Under the co-ordination of the Primary Healthcare Commission (PHC Commission), the DHCs across all 18 districts in Hong Kong have set up hotlines since December 1, 2025, (see Annex 1) to provide personalised case management services for affected residents, offering more convenient and comprehensive medical support. The support includes pairing the affected residents with free consultation services provided by private family doctors and Chinese medicine (CM) practitioners, co-ordinating arrangements for follow-up appointments and medication refills at the Hospital Authority (HA)'s Family Medicine Out-patient (FMOP) Services as necessary, and making referrals to necessary healthcare, nursing and medication services, as well as psychological support. The services co-ordinated by DHCs are not subject to district boundaries. For example, the Centres may assist affected residents in transferring HA FMOP follow-up appointments and medication refill service points, from the Tai Po District to another location, thereby sparing residents the need for travelling across districts. As of January 13, the DHCs hotlines across all 18 districts have received 320 enquiries in total.

Free consultations by family doctors and CM practitioners and free denture replacement services

The HHB introduced a free family doctor service scheme, free CM consultation services, and free denture replacement services on December 4, 15, and 23, 2025, respectively to support the primary healthcare needs of the affected residents until February 28 this year. Case managers of the DHCs will arrange for them to receive up to three free consultations by family doctors and CM practitioners respectively based on their individual situations and preferences, covering the provision of medication and related treatments; and at least one free dental consultation and one follow-up appointment (subject to clinical need), covering denture replacement and oral treatment services.

As of January 13, more than 300 private family doctors have participated in the free family doctor service scheme, covering more than 450 service points that include eight private hospitals. So far, 87 affected residents have been arranged to receive free family doctor consultations. As for the free CM consultation services, more than 360 CM practitioners have participated, covering more than 620 service points, and 45 residents have been arranged to receive the services so far. Regarding free denture replacement services, more than 110 private dentists have participated, covering over 150 service points, and 27 residents have been arranged to receive free denture replacement services so far.

HA's healthcare services

All individuals injured in the fire and admitted to public hospitals under the HA will receive full fee waivers for all necessary healthcare services (including drugs and medical devices) throughout the entire process of their treatment and rehabilitation. A total of 79 patients received treatment at various public hospitals due to the fire. As of January 13, 71 of them had already recovered and were discharged, and the remaining eight are in stable condition. Healthcare staff will continue to provide appropriate treatment and care to these patients.

Moreover, all residents of the eight blocks at Wang Fuk Court (including foreign domestic helpers) are eligible for full medical fee waivers until December 31 this year. The waivers cover in-patient services, family medicine and specialist out-patient clinics (SOPCs) services (including psychiatry SOPCs), accident and emergency services, day hospitals, day procedures, community services, and Chinese Medicine Clinics cum Training and Research Centres under the HA. As of January 13, the HA has provided necessary healthcare services to around 1 800 affected residents.

Mental health support

The 18111 - Mental Health Support Hotline immediately deployed additional staff and strengthened training for its call handlers on the day of the fire incident to cope with the emotional distress that the public may experience due to the incident. From the time of the incident to January 13, the hotline has received around 15 000 calls, 730 of which were related to the fire incident. The WhatsApp service has handled over 700 messages, with about 50 of them concerning the fire incident. The HA's 24-hour Mental Health Direct hotline, manned by psychiatric nurses, offers professional advice and support on mental health issues to callers, including provision of risk assessments and referrals to the HA's mental health services as appropriate. As of January 13, the Mental Health Direct hotline has received 95 calls related to the fire incident, with 35 of them coming from affected citizens.

The HHB will continue to provide comprehensive primary healthcare support to affected residents. The HHB also designed the relevant service workflow from the residents' perspective, allowing them to receive convenient and effective medical support simply through the DHCs (see Annex 2).

Source: AI-found images