Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Government and 29 large corporates jointly launch new round of HYAB Scheme on Corporate Summer Internship on the Mainland and Overseas In the 2025 Policy Address, the Chief Executive emphasised that the Government would sustain its efforts in promoting youth development on all fronts. This includes continuing to implement various exchange and internship programmes on the Mainland and overseas to help young people broaden international horizons and cultivate a holistic outlook. In this regard, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau forged partnerships with large corporates to launch the HYAB Scheme on Corporate Summer Internship on the Mainland and Overseas for Hong Kong youth to intern at the Mainland and overseas operations of these corporates. The Scheme will help young people learn and experience first-hand the national development and international trends, and at the same time provide them with exposure to the work culture in large corporates and the opportunity to establish interpersonal networks outside Hong Kong, enabling them to accumulate invaluable work experience and lay a foundation for future career development.
The number of companies participating in the new round of the Scheme has increased to 29. Internship placements are offered in multiple Chinese Mainland provinces and cities, including various Mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hangzhou, as well as overseas countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. The internship placements also cover a wider range of industries than before, such as financial services, innovation and technology, pharmaceutical, logistics, property development, construction, retail, hospitality and utilities (please refer to Annex for details of the internship placements). Applicants must be aged 18 or above and should be (i) a full time post-secondary student (including sub-degree, undergraduate, or postgraduate) holding a Hong Kong permanent identity card; or (ii) a local full-time post-secondary student (including sub-degree, undergraduate, or postgraduate) holding a Hong Kong identity card. The internship will take place between June and September this year. Participating companies will sponsor the interns for major expenses including transportation and accommodation costs, and assign dedicated personnel to provide training and support to the interns.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Candidate Eligibility Review Committee announces 25 registrations of ex-officio members of Election Committee as valid In accordance with section 5J of the Schedule to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance (Cap. 569), a person holding a specified office under Part 2A of the Schedule may register as an ex-officio member of the EC.
The Registration and Electoral Office has received 25 registrations of ex-officio members. After review, the CERC has determined that those registrations are valid. The subsectors and specified offices involved are listed below:
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
FEHD releases second batch of gravidtrap indexes for Aedes albopictus in February
District
District Among the second batch of First Phase Gravidtrap Indexes covering 21 survey areas and Area Gravidtrap Indexes covering one survey area in February, most of the areas recorded 0 per cent, indicating that the distribution of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes was not extensive.
The FEHD has so far released two batches of gravidtrap indexes for Aedes albopictus in February 2026, covering 48 survey areas. Among these 48 survey areas, 47 recorded a decrease or remained unchanged in the individual gravidtrap index as compared to the Area Gravidtrap Index last month, i.e. January 2026, representing that the areas’ mosquito infestation improved or maintained a low level. Only one area recorded a slight increase, but the index was lower than 10 per cent. Starting in August 2025, following the completion of the surveillance of individual survey areas, and once the latest gravidtrap index and the density index are available, the FEHD has been disseminating relevant information through press releases, its website and social media. It aims to allow members of the public to quickly grasp the mosquito infestation situation and strengthen mosquito control efforts, thereby reducing the risk of chikungunya fever (CF) transmission.
Following recommendations from the World Health Organization and taking into account the local situation in Hong Kong, the FEHD sets up gravidtraps in districts where mosquito-borne diseases have been recorded in the past, as well as in densely populated places such as housing estates, hospitals and schools to monitor the breeding and distribution of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which can transmit CF and dengue fever (DF). At present, the FEHD has set up gravidtraps in 62 survey areas of the community, with a surveillance period of two weeks. During the surveillance period, the FEHD will collect the gravidtraps once a week. After the first week of surveillance, the FEHD will immediately examine the glue boards inside the retrieved gravidtraps for the presence of adult Aedine mosquitoes to compile the Gravidtrap Index (First Phase) and Density Index (First Phase). At the end of the second week of surveillance, the FEHD will instantly check the glue boards for the presence of adult Aedine mosquitoes. Data from the two weeks of surveillance will be combined to obtain the Area Gravidtrap Index and the Area Density Index. The gravidtrap and density indexes for Aedes albopictus in different survey areas, as well as information on mosquito prevention and control measures, are available on the department’s webpage (www.fehd.gov.hk/english/pestcontrol/dengue_fever/Dengue_Fever_Gravidtrap_Index_Update.html# Issued at HKT 17:00
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Appointments to Disaster Relief Fund Advisory CommitteeChief Secretary for Administration (ex-officio)Dr Ko Wing-man Mr Chan Hak-kan Mr Stanley Ng Chau-pei Revd Canon Peter Douglas Koon Ho-ming Professor Emily Chan Ying-yang Mr Brian David Li Man-bun Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury or representative (ex-officio) Secretary for Labour and Welfare or representative (ex-officio) Issued at HKT 16:30
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Online auction of vehicle registration marks to be held from February 26 to March 2 A spokesman for the TD said, “A total of 220 Ordinary VRMs will be available at this online public auction. The list of VRMs (see Annex) has been uploaded to the E-Auction website. Applicants who have paid a $1,000 deposit to reserve an Ordinary VRM for auction should also register as an E-Auction user in advance in order to participate in the online bidding, including placing the first bid at the opening price of $1,000. Otherwise, the VRMs reserved by them may be bid on by other interested bidders at or above the opening price. Auctions for VRMs with ‘HK’ or ‘XX’ as a prefix, special VRMs and personalised VRMs will continue to be carried out through physical auctions by bidding paddles and their announcement arrangements remain unchanged.”
Members of the public participating in the online bidding should take note of the following important points: (2) Bidders are required to provide a digital signature to confirm the submission and amount of the bid by using “iAM Smart+” or a valid digital certificate at the time of the first bid of each online bidding session (including setting automatic bids before the auction begins) to comply with the requirements of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance.
(3) If a bid is made in respect of a VRM within the last 10 minutes before the end of the auction, the auction end time for that particular VRM will be automatically extended by another 10 minutes, up to a maximum of 24 hours.
(4) Successful bidders must follow the instructions in the notification email issued by the TD to log in to the E-Auction within 48 hours from the issuance of email and complete the follow-up procedures, including: (5) A VRM can only be assigned to a motor vehicle registered in the name of the purchaser. Relevant information on the Certificate of Incorporation must be provided by the successful bidder in the Purchaser Information of the Memorandum of Sale if the VRM purchased is to be registered under the name of a body corporate.
(6) Successful bidders will receive a notification email around seven working days after payment has been confirmed and can download the Memorandum of Sale from the E-Auction. The purchaser must apply for the VRM to be assigned to a motor vehicle registered in the name of the purchaser within 12 months from the date of issue of the Memorandum of Sale. If the purchaser fails to do so within the 12-month period, in accordance with the statutory provision, the allocation of the VRM will be cancelled and a new allocation will be arranged by the TD without prior notice to the purchaser.Issued at HKT 15:00
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Fatal traffic accident in Lantau North
Police are investigating a fatal traffic accident happened in Lantau North today (February 11) in which a man died.
At 9.49am, a taxi driven by a 43-year-old man was travelling along North Lantau Highway towards Hong Kong International Airport. It reportedly rammed into a stationary works vehicle.Issued at HKT 19:25
The Government today launched the “HYAB (Home & Youth Affairs Bureau) Scheme on Corporate Summer Internship on the Mainland & Overseas 2026”, with a view to providing young Hongkongers with quality internship placements.
Run in collaboration with 29 large corporates, the scheme will help youths learn, at first-hand, about national development and international trends.
Additionally, it will give young people exposure to the work culture of large corporates, and an opportunity to establish interpersonal networks.
Overall, it will enable them to accumulate invaluable work experience and lay a foundation for their future career development.
The internship placements are offered in various Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, as well as in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hangzhou. Other internships are in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
The placements span a variety of industries, including financial services, innovation and technology, pharmaceuticals, logistics, property development, construction, retail, hospitality and utilities.
They will take place between June and September. Participating companies will sponsor the interns’ major expenses, including transportation and accommodation costs, and assign dedicated personnel to provide training and support.
Aspiring participants should submit their applications online on or before March 9.
Evolving global trends Globally, the application of Web3 technologies in finance continues to broaden in both scope and sophistication. A few trends are more prominent. The first is tokenisation of RWAs (real-world assets). In a growing number of markets, tokenisation initiatives are moving from “proof of concept” to real-word deployment, supported by more institutional adoption. Government bonds, money market funds and other more traditional financial instruments are increasingly being issued or mirrored on-chain, using digital ledgers to enhance settlement efficiency, enable fractional ownership and unlock liquidity in assets that have traditionally been less liquid.
Hong Kong is one of the pioneers in this space. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government was the first in the world to issue tokenised government green bonds. Last year, we built on this foundation and issued the world’s largest digital green bond, with a multi-currency offering of $10 billion. Meanwhile, financial institutions are becoming more receptive to digital assets. By the end of last year, banks in Hong Kong held over $14 billion in digital assets under custody, a year-on-year increase of about 180%. Banks have also begun offering tokenised deposit services, with the total value of such deposits reaching $29 billion by the end of last year.
The second trend is a related and evolving one: that is, the interaction between “TradFi” (traditional finance) and “DeFi” (decentralised finance). Traditional institutions are now importing DeFi mechanisms into their own architectures – such as automated market-making, programmable liquidity pools and the use of on-chain collateral – to support more efficient trading, funding and settlement. At the same time, DeFi is coming under growing regulatory and supervisory pressure in multiple jurisdictions, particularly in relation to anti-money laundering, investor protection and broader financial stability. There have been growing calls for DeFi to be brought under existing or emerging digital-asset regulatory frameworks.
The third trend is the growing intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assets. AI systems are being designed to interact with tokenised money and smart contracts, enabling the autonomous execution of certain transactions and settlements. At the same time, AI tools are making digital asset markets more intelligent, efficient and data-driven. As AI agents become capable of making and executing decisions independently, we may begin to see the early forms of what some call the “machine economy”: where AI agents can hold and transfer digital assets, pay for services and transact with one another on chain. While this shift could deliver substantial efficiency gains, it also raises important questions around AI governance, accountability and cybersecurity.
Hong Kong’s approach Against this backdrop of rapid global experimentation, what are we doing in Hong Kong? We are charting our course, leveraging our unique strengths as an international financial centre to stay at the forefront of innovation and keep pace with emerging developments. A few principles are guiding our strategy.
First, under the “one country, two systems” framework, Hong Kong is free to explore financial innovation, including in digital assets. We stand out as a market with consistent, predictable, forward-looking policies and a balanced and trusted regulatory framework. We welcome Web3 innovators and institutions from around the world to develop and scale their businesses here.
At the same time, we recognise that innovation often moves faster than regulation, potentially creating gaps and new risks. We are therefore carefully balancing the promotion of innovation with the need for sound risk management. Our objective is to embrace new technologies while safeguarding investors, consumers and the overall financial stability. The principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulation” continues to underpin the design of our regulatory framework.
Second, we see Web3, blockchain technology and AI as powerful enablers of the real economy, rather than ends in themselves. Our policy focus is therefore on how these technologies can be applied to enhance efficiency, lower costs and support concrete, real-world use cases. Ultimately, our aim is to make financial services more inclusive and accessible, while addressing long-standing pain points in transactions and market operations.
Third, we are committed to pro-innovation regulation. Our regulators operate with a dual mandate: they not only exercise prudent supervision, but also actively facilitate market and product development. Through mechanisms such as regulatory sandboxes, we support experimentation and, in some cases, co-create solutions in close collaboration with innovators and industry participants.
Some latest initiatives
Ladies and gentlemen, with these guiding principles in mind, we are pressing ahead to advance Web3 development in Hong Kong. Let me highlight some of our latest initiatives.
First, on regulation. We continue to enhance Hong Kong’s regulatory framework for digital assets, including the launch of a regulatory regime for stablecoin issuers in August last year. We see stablecoins as a practical tool for addressing the pain points in the real economy, particularly in payments and settlements. In giving out licences, we ensure that licensees have real-world use cases, a credible and sustainable business model, as well as strong regulatory compliance capabilities. Our strategy is moving forward fast, step by step. Therefore, we plan to issue only a small number of stablecoin issuer licences in the first batch in March this year.
Meanwhile, we are also finalising the details of a new licensing regime for digital asset dealers and custodian service providers, with the aim of introducing the relevant legislation this summer. Together with the frameworks already in place, this will ensure that our overall regulatory regime comprehensively covers the key nodes of the digital asset ecosystem.
Second, on product innovation and development. We will regularise the issuance of tokenised green bonds. At the same time, we encourage market innovation and nurture the broader ecosystem. For example, building on the Project Ensemble sandbox, Ensemble TX was launched by the HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) in November last year. It is a new pilot phase that enables faster, more transparent and more efficient settlement of real-value tokenised transactions.
Looking ahead, as the convergence of AI and blockchain continues to accelerate, the Government and our regulators will work with the industry to foster concrete, high-impact use cases, while ensuring that emerging risks are properly identified, monitored and managed.
Concluding remarks Ladies and gentlemen, before I close, let me leave you with this message: the Hong Kong SAR Government and our financial regulators fully recognise the need of and are committed to keeping pace with rapid technological change, and building a vibrant digital asset ecosystem here in Hong Kong. We welcome global innovators like you to join us on this journey.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan gave these remarks at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 on February 11.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced today that the Advanced Semiconductor R&D Center has officially broken ground at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) headquarters campus in Hsinchu. Jointly promoted by the MOEA, the National Development Council (NDC), and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), the project is supported under the IC Taiwan initiative and will establish the nation’s first 12-inch advanced semiconductor pilot line. Scheduled for completion in December 2027, this R&D center will provide comprehensive services including innovative IC design verification, advanced process development, and localized equipment and material validation. The facility is designed to lower verification barriers for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), effectively bridging the gap between laboratory research and industrial commercialization. By enabling deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as AI chips, silicon photonics, and quantum technologies, the Center will further solidify Taiwan’s leadership within the global semiconductor ecosystem.
Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin noted that Taiwan’s 8.36% economic growth last year was largely driven by semiconductor and AI sectors, with continued positive momentum expected. He emphasized the ministry’s role in providing SMEs with opportunities for small-scale, diversified, and specialized chip prototyping. By integrating new 12-inch R&D capabilities with upgraded 8-inch pilot lines, this R&D center will provide a comprehensive one-stop service platform covering design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing. In addition, it will allow domestic equipment and material suppliers to conduct on-site demonstration and validation, accelerating their integration into international markets and global supply chains. Minister Kung expressed his expectation that this R&D center will expedite the development of a resilient, autonomous, and next-generation semiconductor innovation ecosystem in Taiwan.
According to the Department of Industrial Technology, this R&D center is a key part of a broader national semiconductor infrastructure plan comprising three major pilot lines and a metrology validation laboratory. The 12-inch advanced pilot line represents an investment of NT$3.77 billion and will be Taiwan’s first high-technology semiconductor facility of its kind operated by a research institution. The facility construction is scheduled to be completed in December 2027, with operations commencing in the first quarter of 2028. The pilot line will provide 28-90 nm back-end-of-line (BEOL) process R&D and pilot production services, with the goal of shortening product development cycles by approximately 30%. Supporting forward-looking technologies such as quantum computing, silicon photonics, ASICs, and 3D integration, this R&D center enables domestic firms to complete the full R&D-validation-iteration cycle within Taiwan. Additionally, this R&D center will strengthen supply chain resilience, promote academic collaboration, cultivate high-level technical talent, and establish a comprehensive semiconductor innovation ecosystem for the AI era.
En prévision de la rentrée scolaire du lundi 16 février, Alcide Ponga, président du gouvernement et Isabelle Champmoreau, membre du gouvernement en charge de l’enseignement, se rendront à l’école Saint Jean-Baptiste (28, rue Auguste Bénébig – Vallée des Colons) cevendredi 13 février à 9 heures.
Cette visite s’inscrit dans une démarche de soutien aux équipes de l’enseignement catholique, face à la situation difficile que traverse actuellement le réseau.