Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Promotes Hong Kong's Legal Hub During European Visit to UNIDROIT in Rome

2025-07-11 20:58 Last Updated At：07-12 04:08

SJ promotes Hong Kong's unique legal advantages in Rome

The Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, continued his European visit in Rome, Italy, on July 10 (Rome time) to promote and strengthen co-operation between Hong Kong and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and to promote Hong Kong's unique advantages under "one country, two systems" to the local legal and business sectors.

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SJ promotes Hong Kong's unique legal advantages in Rome Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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SJ promotes Hong Kong's unique legal advantages in Rome Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Mr Lam first visited UNIDROIT and had lunch with the Secretary-General of UNIDROIT, Professor Ignacio Tirado. Mr Lam thanked UNIDROIT for its support of the Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy and the secondment of local legal professionals to UNIDROIT. They also discussed opportunities for UNIDROIT to participate in the Academy's capacity-building programme and the relevant work of organising the 2026 Asia-Pacific International Private Law Summit in Hong Kong. During his visit to UNIDROIT, Mr Lam also officiated at the opening ceremony of the Asian Transnational Law Centre.

Mr Lam then attended a seminar co-organised by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and UNIDROIT entitled "Hong Kong as a Gateway to the Asia Pacific" and delivered a keynote speech. Mr Lam said that, as Hong Kong is a legal hub, the DoJ has been strengthening co-operation with renowned international legal and dispute resolution organisations and securing their presence in Hong Kong. Recently, in addition to the International Organization for Mediation that will be headquartered in Hong Kong, the DoJ, with the support of the Central Government, has also been exploring with the UNIDROIT Secretariat the proposal to set up a liaison office in Hong Kong. The DoJ thanked the UNIDROIT Governing Council for their support of the proposal to be considered by the UNIDROIT General Assembly. The proposal, if passed by the General Assembly, will help promote the work of UNIDROIT in the Asia-Pacific region and further enhance Hong Kong’s position as a regional centre for international legal and dispute resolution services, Mr Lam added.

In the evening, Mr Lam had dinner with the former Minister of Justice of Italy and recipient of the 2024 Chinese Government Friendship Award, Professor Oliviero Diliberto, to exchange views on issues of mutual concern.

Mr Lam attended a networking lunch and meeting hosted by the Italy China Council Foundation and supported by the Italian confederation of small and medium private industries today (July 11, Rome time) and elaborated to local legal and business sectors Hong Kong’s unique advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland while being closely connected to the world under the "one country, two systems" principle. He also learned more about the developments in local enterprises and legal services and explained to them how Hong Kong's legal and dispute resolution services are conducive to international investment and trade.

In the evening, Mr Lam will call on the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Italy, Mr Jia Guide, to brief him on the exchanges and co-operation between the DoJ and UNIDROIT, and the latest work progress on dispute resolution services.

Mr Lam will leave Rome tomorrow (July 12, Rome time) and arrive in Hong Kong on the morning of July 13.

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.

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Promotes Hong Kong's Legal Hub During European Visit to UNIDROIT in Rome

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