Remarks by SHYA at media session (with photo/video)
The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing, together with the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun; Police Regional Commander of New Territories North Regional Headquarters, Ms Lam Man-han; and Officer in charge of the Casualty Enquiry Unit, Chief Superintendent, Ms Tsang Shuk-yin, met the media today (November 29) regarding the follow-up work on the No. 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Following are the remarks by Miss Mak and Ms Tsang at the media session:
Reporter: Firstly, I just want to clarify on the casualty figures. Can the Government provide a little bit more clarity on the casualty figures, and also whether the new missing persons cases that you mentioned earlier add to the overall tally, just some clarity on that. And the second thing is, could you also talk about the difficulties in identifying the bodies so far, what are the major issues that are facing the identification of bodies, and how long will this process take according to your estimation. Lastly, we would like to ask about the subsidy. Has Government witnessed any cases of the subsidy given to the residents being abused? Could Miss Mak clarify exactly does the subsidy only apply to home owners or does it apply to home owners who live here, or does it apply to tenants, just have a more specific clarity on that. Lastly, if there is a case of abuse, what will the Government do? Will they prosecute the home owners, for example who took the subsidy from the tenants. What is the situation then?
Officer in charge of Casualty Enquiry Unit: Regarding the number of casualties, as of 3pm today, we got 128 deceased persons confirmed. We expect that when our DVIU (Disaster Victims Identification Unit) officers enter other buildings, the number of deaths may be on the rise.
Regarding the missing person reports, as I have reported earlier, we have tried our best to call back some of the informants and also the relatives. And when we called them back, they actually have been in contact with their missing relatives or friends already. But for some other cases, the informants only provided very limited or insufficient information. For example, they could only provide the nicknames (of their friends), or they just guessed their friends might have been living there. So some of the information is really insufficient for us to proceed. But we are still reconnecting with these informants and trying to get more information.
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: The HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Government understands the feelings of those residents concerned. They will be feeling helpless and unsecured. They need timely support and that is why we provide the $10,000 cash subsidy. We hope that with this cash subsidy, the households living in Wang Fuk Court can get some timely assistance. This subsidy is for those affected residents, households, living in the Court during the mega fire. No matter the tenants or the owners, who are living in the Court during this incident, are eligible for this cash subsidy. So far, we have not received any formal report about any abuse cases. If there are any cases, we will definitely look into the cases. What we want to do is to provide timely and flexible subsidies and assistance to those in need. I also urge all those residents living in Wang Fuk Court to approach us as soon as possible to get assistance and help from us. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Remarks by SHYA at media session 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
