Sir Gordon Wu Honored with Asia Society Game Changer Award for Remarkable Contributions to Hong Kong's Development

Speech by CE at Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award (with photos/video)

Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at the Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award today (June 18):

Deputy Commissioner Hua You (Deputy Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), Chairman Ronnie Chan (Chairman of Asia Society Hong Kong Center), Sir Gordon Wu (Chairman of the Board of Hopewell Holdings Limited), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening. I am very delighted to join you, tonight, for this very special occasion. We are here to honour Sir Gordon Wu, to present the founder and Chairman of Hopewell Holdings with the Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award.This Award recognises the achievements of remarkable individuals, those who have established a singular connection with Hong Kong and an outstanding track record in advancing understanding of Asia through culture, ideas and innovation.

Sir Gordon is richly deserving this award. He is a visionary dedicated to promoting the economic development of Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Southeast Asia, and beyond. More than advancing understanding, he has trailblazed connectivity. He builds bridges, roads, tunnels and infrastructure that bring people, cities, regions and countries together.

A pioneering believer in the boundless promise of our country, China, Sir Gordon has spearheaded countless critical infrastructure and construction projects on the Chinese Mainland.

His far-reaching enterprises have ranged from power stations serving millions in the Pearl River Delta region to Guangzhou's China Hotel, one of the country's first five-star hotels.

The China Hotel became China's first major development to incorporate the Build-Operate-Transfer model. Sir Gordon then applied this smart financing and delivery model to highways and power plants, laying a solid foundation for decades of infrastructure projects across the region.

One of the earliest advocates of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, a lot of people may not know this, Sir Gordon should be immensely proud of its grand realisation. The Bridge has been instrumental in propelling the Greater Bay Area's economic development. No wonder Sir Gordon has earned his name as "King of Highways". Well deserving.

His public and community service in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, the rest of Asia and the world beyond, is equally commendable. He has been Chairman of the then Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board, a member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, as well as the Commission on Strategic Development of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Logistics Development Council, an advisor to the Urban Renewal Authority, and a great deal more. If I keep on repeating, you will not have time for dinner.

He has also been a member of the United Nations Association of China, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the World Bank's IFC Business Advisory Council and the APEC Business Advisory Council.

In 2004, Sir Gordon was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star for his contributions to society and Hong Kong's logistics and maritime development.

This evening's tribute, and presentation of the Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award, brings it all together. It is a much welcomed opportunity to honour Sir Gordon for a lifetime abounding in achievement.

And let me add — this comes at a proud moment for Hong Kong. Today, the International Institute for Management Development ranked our city second globally in competitiveness, up one place from last year and the highest since 2019.

Also today, the newly released QS World University Rankings ranked five of our universities in the world's top 100, with, for the first time ever, two Hong Kong universities ranked in the global top 20, and four in the top 50 for the first time in six years. I am glad that these two pieces of good news of Hong Kong add to the happy moment this evening of tonight’s award ceremony.

I know you all can't wait. Sir Gordon, this is your evening, congratulations. And to everyone here, I hope you have a memorable one. Thank you.

Source: AI-found images

Speech by CE at Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Speech by CE at Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Speech by CE at Asia Society Hong Kong Game Changer Award (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Source: AI-found images

Remarks by CS at press conference on Report on Impact of Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy in Hong Kong (with photos/video)

The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, hosted a press conference on press conference on Report on Impact of Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy in Hong Kong today (June 18). Also present were the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, and the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Ms Alice Lau, with members of Commission on Poverty, namely Honorary President of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries Mr Jimmy Kwok; the Chief Executive Officer of St James' Settlement, Ms Josephine Lee; and the Chief Executive of the Tencent Charity Foundation, Dr James Li. Following are their remarks at the press conference:

Reporter: First, does the Government have the number of how many people have been lifted out of poverty thanks to the poverty alleviation measures? If no, how can the Government assess the effectiveness of these measures when we are talking about poverty alleviation, and does that mean Hong Kong will no longer have a poverty line? Second, the Government has for the first time adopted the concept of social transfer values in poverty alleviation measurement, which shows the benefits received by households. How does this actually tell the effectiveness of the poverty alleviation efforts? How does the Government assess whether the amounts are enough to help those in need. Does that justify not providing more financial support? Thank you.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Thank you for your question. As the Chief Secretary has said very clearly, when we talk about targeted alleviation of poverty, it is based on a very comprehensive basic services provided in the fields of social service, medical, education, and also public housing. So all these four areas, you can imagine, provide a very comprehensive basic support for a wide spectrum of people in Hong Kong who are in need of different forms of Government support for them. But on top of that, we are also conscious about the needs of some special groups. They include those living in sub-divided flats, those who are single parent families, and what we call, all-elderly families. They have needs other than what is usually provided through social welfare, medical, education and public housing. Then we designed targeted services. This includes visits by the Care Teams and Community Living Rooms. All these are designed to help different groups. I think the key is to look at the for each individual project, we are more focused on KPIs and whether we have been able to achieve all those pre-set KPIs. It is clearly shown in the report. I think we are more than meeting the KPI requirements. So this all shows that these targeted alleviation projects achieved the stated objectives, by helping all those groups and targeted groups of people whom we believe they need our help.

And a part of that, we have provided with new tools, as you have mentioned, the social transfer values. This is an internationally recognised way to monetise, and to give you a value about the services provided by the Government. I think the best way is to visualise the fact, if you turn to page 168 and 169 of the Report, we have given you some very typical examples, including the elderly and families living in a public housing estates, and those receiving elderly services or receiving cash subsidies from the Government, so they show you in a very easily understandable way. So if all the services provided by the Government had to be obtained from the market, of course assuming all these services are available in the market, what would be the value in monetary terms of all these services? To give you an idea about the support provided to all those people who are in need of help, this is the way to look at what we are doing right now about targeted alleviation of poverty. Thank you.

Chief Secretary for Administration: I want to supplement that in terms of beneficiaries, and according to our records for the Sham Shui Po Community Living Room as an example, so far there are about 520 000 number of attendance, and for the Strive and Rise programme, we all together have more than 14 000 students, and for the after-school care service, the quota is 10 500. These are the beneficiaries.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)

Remarks by CS at press conference on Report on Impact of Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy in Hong Kong (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Remarks by CS at press conference on Report on Impact of Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy in Hong Kong (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Remarks by CS at press conference on Report on Impact of Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy in Hong Kong (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases