As drone technology continues to advance, its application is expanding across various sectors, including logistics, aerial photography, industrial inspections and more.
Innovative solutions: Kun Li’s company is one of the participants in the first batch of low-altitude economy Regulatory Sandbox pilot projects and is working with a construction firm to apply drone inspections for site safety. Source from news.gov.hk
In response to the growing potential of the low-altitude economy (LAE), the Government has established the Working Group on Developing Low-altitude Economy to formulate development strategies and inter-departmental action plans regarding the trend.
The Government announced the first batch of 38 low-altitude economy Regulatory Sandbox pilot projects earlier and some of them are commencing progressively. They cover various fields and application scenarios such as emergency and rescue, drone delivery, inspection and safety maintenance, surveillance and low-altitude infrastructure.
Business springboard
Kun Li’s company is one of the participants in the first batch of pilot projects. It set up a branch in Hong Kong last year, focusing primarily on the application of drone technology in areas such as urban management and inspection. Their flagship product is a self-docking and charging drone station. The company hopes it can be used by all kinds of drones in the future.
As part of the pilot project, the company joined forces with a construction company to apply drone inspections for site safety.
Opportunities ahead: Mr Li says Hong Kong provides exceptional avenues for financing and a springboard for entering overseas markets. Source from news.gov.hk
Mr Li pointed out that Hong Kong, with its unique combination of rich natural landscapes and high-density urban development, offers diverse scenarios for testing drone technology. He also believes Hong Kong’s status and function as an international financial centre, provides exceptional avenues for financing and a springboard for promoting their products to overseas markets.
Nonetheless, Mr Li acknowledged there are challenges for drone technology development in the city, including relevant policies and regulations.
Industry facilitation
Invest Hong Kong Head of Innovation & Technology Andy Wong believes that developing a low-altitude economy will bring significant benefits to Hong Kong's society and economy, including enhanced smart city management, and promoting innovation and technology development. He also noted that as an emerging industry, low-altitude economy-related business will create employment opportunities, such as for drone operators in the city.
Reaching businesses: Invest Hong Kong Head of Innovation & Technology Andy Wong says it provides information and platforms for companies to explore business opportunities. Source from news.gov.hk
In addition, Mr Wong highlighted that Hong Kong has a rich talent pool and a robust and efficient financial market which are the key advantages that attract low-altitude economy firms to set up operations in the city. Moreover, Invest Hong Kong has been providing platforms for companies to explore business opportunities.
Invest Hong Kong will hold a low-altitude economy seminar on June 27, inviting industry representatives and professionals to share their latest insights.
Russian authorities said Friday that the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike they said struck a café in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region rose to 27 people. Kyiv denied attacking civilian targets.
Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman of Russia's main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and hotel in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year's Eve overnight into Thursday, killed 27 people, including two minors. A total of 31, including five minors, were hospitalized with injuries.
A criminal probe on the charges of carrying out an act of terrorism has been opened, Petrenko said.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, denied attacking civilians. He told Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces “adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law” and "carry out strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector, and other lawful targets.”
Lykhovii said that General Staff published an explicit list of targets that the Ukrainian army struck on the night of New Year’s Eve that did not include occupied parts of the Kherson region.
Lykhovii noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations.
The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.
In Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed the head of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov as his new chief of staff Friday, following the resignation of Andrii Yermak after a corruption scandal over a month ago.
In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine now needs to focus on security issues, the development of its defense and security forces, and the diplomatic track of negotiations — areas that will fall under the remit of the Office of the President headed by Budanov.
Zelenskyy dismissed Yermak, the previous head of the Office of the President, on Nov. 28 after anti-corruption officials conducted searches at his residence as part of an investigation into alleged graft in the energy sector.
Budanov 39, is one of the country’s most recognizable and popular wartime figures and has led Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as the GUR, since 2020.
A career military intelligence officer, he rose through the ranks of Ukraine’s defense establishment after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, taking part in special operations and intelligence missions linked to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He was reportedly wounded during one such operation.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Budanov has become a prominent public face of Ukraine’s intelligence effort, regularly appearing in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signaling with psychological pressure on Moscow. He has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions toward Ukraine and the region, while portraying the war as an existential struggle for Ukrainian statehood.
Under Budanov’s leadership, the GUR expanded its operational footprint, coordinating intelligence, sabotage and special operations aimed at degrading Russian military capabilities far beyond the front lines. Ukrainian officials have credited military intelligence with operations targeting Russian command structures, logistics hubs, energy infrastructure and naval assets, including strikes deep inside Russian territory and occupied areas.
His appointment to head the Office of the President marks an unusual shift, placing a serving intelligence chief at the center of Ukraine’s political and diplomatic coordination. Zelenskyy has framed the move as part of a broader effort to sharpen the state’s focus on security, defense development and diplomacy as the war with Russia continues into its fourth year.
“Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and sufficient strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia's accusations against Ukraine come as the U.S. leads a diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Moscow alleged that Kyiv launched a long-range drone attack against a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in northwestern Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin’s residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.
In his New Year’s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was “90% ready” but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia conducted what local authorities called “one of the most massive” drone attacks at Zaporizhzhia overnight.
At least nine Russian drones struck the city, damaging dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, head of the regional administration, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram on Friday. There were no casualties, the official said.
Overall, Russia fired 116 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, which said that 86 drones were intercepted, while 27 more have reached their targets.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday that its air defenses intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple Russian regions.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia's Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, on Friday also accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a missile strike on the city of Belgorod. Two women were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said. The strike shattered windows in multiple residential buildings and damaged an unspecified “commercial” facility and a number of cars, according to the official.
FILE - Ukraine's military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov speaks during press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
