Hong Kong's Education Secretary Promotes Digital Education Strategies at World Conference in Hangzhou

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang

The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, today (May 12) attended the 2026 World Digital Education Conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and delivered a keynote speech introducing Hong Kong's strategies for promoting digital education and its implementation.

Dr Choi noted that the Education Bureau (EDB) is setting out the direction and strategies for digital education with a view to tying in with the national strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, as well as the goal of developing Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology centre. This is done by the establishment of the Steering Committee on Strategic Development of Digital Education, and supporting the Curriculum Development Council to draw up the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools. The EDB is also formulating an AI literacy framework to comprehensively enhance students' AI literacy.

She said that the EDB continues to provide tiered and diversified professional development activities and school-based support services on digital education to strengthen schools' professional capacity in leading change and innovation in teaching. The EDB has also set aside $2 billion under the Quality Education Fund to support digital education in primary and secondary schools. Among this, $500 million is allocated for the AI for Empowering Learning and Teaching Funding Programme, providing each publicly funded school a grant of $500,000 to purchase AI tools and organise activities fostering students' AI literacy.

Dr Choi emphasised, "Educational restructuring in the digital era is a systemic transformation. We will enhance the high-quality development of digital education by the synergistic promotion of learning, teaching, assessment, management, and research."

Subsequently, Dr Choi attended the closing ceremony of the World Digital Education Conference and, on behalf of the EDB, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on digital education with the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province. The MOU aims to leverage the respective strengths of Hong Kong and Zhejiang in the resources, technology and talent of digital education, and jointly build a community of collaborative innovation in digital education, contributing to the development of digital education worldwide.

Yesterday (May 11), Dr Choi attended the plenary session of the World Digital Education Conference. She also visited a school and an innovation and technology application promotion base in Hangzhou to learn about AI-empowered teaching and how data can drive improvements in teaching and school management, as well as to gain first-hand experience of the applications of AI robots in various scenarios.

In addition, Dr Choi met with education officials and organisation representatives attending the conference during these two days to discuss strengthening educational co-operation and exchanges.

Dr Choi will return to Hong Kong tomorrow (May 13).

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

SED attends World Digital Education Conference in Zhejiang Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Results of monthly survey on business situation of small and medium-sized enterprises for April 2026

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (May 12) the results of the Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) for April 2026.

The current diffusion index (DI) on business receipts amongst SMEs decreased from 44.3 in March 2026 in the contractionary zone to 44.0 in April 2026, whereas the one-month’s ahead (i.e. May 2026) outlook DI on business receipts was 47.5. Analysed by sector, the current DIs on business receipts for some surveyed sectors dropped in April 2026 as compared with previous month, particularly for the restaurants (from 40.6 to 38.1), import and export trades (from 46.3 to 45.4) and wholesale trade (from 42.2 to 41.3).

The current DI on new orders for the import and export trades decreased from 46.8 in March 2026 to 46.1 in April 2026, whereas the outlook DI on new orders in one month’s time (i.e. May 2026) was 47.9.

Commentary

A Government spokesman said that business sentiment amongst SMEs was still cautious in April amid the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, but the situation stabilised somewhat. While the current diffusion index on business receipts for SMEs fell slightly from the preceding month, the outlook diffusion index rose back. Meanwhile, the overall employment situation remained generally steady.

Looking ahead, the evolving Middle East conflict remains a key source of uncertainty for local business sentiment, but sustained growth of the Hong Kong economy will provide support. The Government has taken targeted measures to ease the impact from high fuel costs and assist SMEs in navigating the fast-changing market environment, and will continue to closely monitor the situation.

Further information

The Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises aims to provide a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for assessing the short-term business situation faced by SMEs. SMEs covered in this survey refer to companies with fewer than 50 persons engaged. Respondents were asked to exclude seasonal fluctuations in reporting their views. Based on the views collected from the survey, a set of diffusion indices (including current and outlook diffusion indices) is compiled. A reading above 50 indicates that the business condition is generally favourable, whereas that below 50 indicates otherwise. As for statistics on the business prospects of prominent companies in Hong Kong, users may refer to the publication entitled "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey" released by the C&SD.

The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. The survey solicits feedback from a panel sample of about 600 SMEs each month and the survey findings are thus subject to sample size constraint. Views collected from the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own companies rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in. Besides, in this type of opinion survey on expected business situation, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the business situation accords with the underlying trends. For this survey, main bulk of the data were collected around the last week of the reference month.

More detailed statistics are given in the "Report on Monthly Survey on the Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1080015&scode=300).

Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact Industrial Production Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7246; email: sme-survey@censtatd.gov.hk).

Source: AI-found images