Hong Kong Officials Explore AI Innovations in Shenzhen for Enhanced Government Services and Efficiency.

SCS visits Shenzhen with LegCo Members

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, led officials from the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) and the Digital Policy Office (DPO) on a duty visit to Shenzhen together with the delegation of the Legislative Council Panel on Public Service today (May 26). They went to learn about the use of AI by relevant local organisations there to assist in handling government administrative work. Government officials joining the visit included the Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Clement Leung, and the Commissioner for Digital Policy, Mr Tony Wong.

They first visited the Government Services and Data Management Bureau of the Shenzhen Municipality in Futian District to learn about the introduction and application of "AI digital employees". They then visited the Shenzhen Government Service Center to learn about the hotline 12345 and its technological application. They also visited the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court and an innovation and technology company to learn how the AI-Enhanced Adjudication Assisting System is used and how AI assists in enhancing legal services respectively.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is committed to promoting the development of a smart city and digital government. With over 100 digital government initiatives being rolled out to promote digital government and the smart city, half of them involve the application of big data analytics and AI technologies. Mrs Yeung said that with the assistance of the DPO, the CSB endeavours to drive the adoption of management measures and digitalisation among bureaux and departments to reprioritise and reorganise their work, capitalise on technological solutions and streamline work processes, thereby not only enhancing work efficiency and providing convenience to the public but also optimising the use of civil service manpower resources.

The departments are actively promoting e-government services and AI, and many of them have successfully developed their own AI systems for data processing, statistics, traffic management and environmental detection, and more. They also use big data to analyse weather data, and the kiosks forself-service applications have been well received by the public.

Apart from the smart solutions developed by departments for their respective professional needs, in terms of common needs within the Government, HKPilot, a large language model version of a generative AI document processing copilot application self-developed by the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Center (HKGAI) established under the InnoHK research clusters, is currently being piloted within the Government. It will help reduce the manpower required for handling general document processing tasks in the longer term. The HKGAI will also develop a number of applications for different areas of public affairs, such as the legal-related "LexiHK", to further integrate the application of generative AI into government affairs.

SCS visits Shenzhen with LegCo Members Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SCS visits Shenzhen with LegCo Members Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SCS visits Shenzhen with LegCo Members Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SCS visits Shenzhen with LegCo Members Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

FEHD Sunlight Market stalls for rent on January 22, 23 and 26

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) announced today (January 14) that eight vacant stalls at the Sunlight Market will be available to the public for renting on January 22, 23 and 26 on a first-come, first-served basis.

The retail commodities allowed for sale in these stalls cover vegetables, seawater fish, frozen/chilled meat (excluding chilled poultry), other food-related wet goods, non-food-related wet goods and non-food-related dry goods. The licence agreement is a 25-month fixed term starting from February 1, with no right of renewal upon expiry of the licence agreement. The licence fee of the stalls varies depending on their sizes. Relevant information is available on the FEHD website.

Members of the public who are interested in renting a market stall should approach the Islands District Environmental Hygiene Office, Room 626, 6/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road, Central (Tel: 2852 3606), to apply in person from 9.30am to 12.30pm or 2.30pm to 4.30pm during the abovementioned renting period.

A spokesman for the FEHD said, "Applicants for the market stalls must be at least 18 years old and ordinarily reside in Hong Kong. To allow more people to select stalls and increase customer choices by enhancing the diversity in terms of the variety of stalls, each applicant can only rent one stall in the Sunlight Market. The terms and conditions of renting market stalls on a first-come, first-served basis have been uploaded to the FEHD website, detailing the qualifications of the applicants."

Details of renting market stalls in the FEHD Sunlight Market on a first-come, first-served basis have been uploaded to the FEHD website (www.fehd.gov.hk/english/pleasant_environment/tidy_market/FCFS/index.html). Interested applicants may visit the department website or contact the Islands District Environmental Hygiene Office.

The Sunlight Market, Photo source: reference image