Category: MIL-OSI

Source: Government of Singapore

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, at the Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit 2026 today (October 27):

Professor the Honourable Priscilla Leung (Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship), Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong), distinguished university presidents and academic leaders, honourable guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. A warm welcome to Hong Kong, and the second Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit.

I am delighted to address you today, a distinguished audience of university presidents and leaders, academic experts and outstanding students from all over the world. You’re here these next two days to share insights and build lasting connections. And you have come to the right place.

Hong Kong, a city of only 1,100 square kilometres in size, counts five universities among the world’s top 100. Three of them are among the most internationalised in the world. We attract students from more than 100 countries, with about 70 per cent of our academic staff from outside Hong Kong. English is the main medium of instruction in our universities.

Hong Kong operates under the common law system, enjoying academic freedom and the free flow of people, capital, ideas and information. These all spring from the “one country, two systems” principle – the unwavering support of our country, China, together with global connectivity.

Last month, the Hong Kong SAR Government launched Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan. In the coming five years, the Government is committed to building this city into an international hub for high-calibre talent. This aligns with our country’s strategy of inspiring the nation through science and education.

The Northern Metropolis is also central to the Five-Year Plan and Hong Kong’s future. The main focus of its development will be its three University Towns, which are based on the concept of development comprising campus area, technology area, industry area, and living community area. They will be developed to band together five elements: education, technology, industry, talent, and city development.

At the 2024 Summit, I mentioned that we had set aside more than 80 hectares of land in the Northern Metropolis for a new University Town. Our ambitions have only grown since then.

Those 80 hectares have now become about 300 hectares for campus areas across three university towns – at San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling. Together with surrounding technology and industry areas and planned communities, the overall area of the university towns will exceed 1 000 hectares.

Each town has a clear positioning. San Tin University Town will focus on medicine, life and health technology, AI, robotics, microelectronics, and emerging industries. It will be directly connected to the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone, as well as San Tin Technopole.

Hung Shui Kiu University Town will rise as a centre for applied university education in smart manufacturing and global talent cultivation. Three campus sites, about 26 hectares in all, are open for application, with results to be announced early next year.

Ta Kwu Ling University Town will include arts and “blue-green” elements, supporting emerging, traditional and new industries alike.

These three university towns are being built to attract the world’s finest scholars and students. We will invite institutions to establish basic research institutes and large-scale shared research platforms, including high-performance computing centres, joint laboratories and interdisciplinary research centres.

The towns are also designed to empower industry. We will encourage university staff to undertake research at companies. We will encourage industry professionals to contribute to university teaching and research. Our goal is to strengthen the links between industry, academia and research, enabling them to complement and reinforce one another.

Ladies and gentlemen, in times like these, co-operation, not isolation, is the road to take. I invite you all to find your partner and join us in Hong Kong, at the Northern Metropolis and its university towns, where the future of education, research, industry and technology is being built.

I am grateful to the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship for hosting this global gathering. My thanks also go to the supporting institutions: the University Grants Committee and our Hong Kong universities.

I wish you all a rewarding Summit and a memorable stay in Hong Kong, the world’s East meets West centre for international cultural exchange. Thank you.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, at the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) Green and Sustainable Finance Forum 2026 today (October 27):

P C (Chief Executive Officer of the HKQAA, Mr P C Chan), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

A very good morning. It is a pleasure of mine to join the HKQAA Green and Sustainable Finance Forum. I thank HKQAA for bringing us together to explore how Hong Kong’s green finance and commodity trading ecosystem can support global sustainable development. Today’s discussions connect three important priorities: strengthening markets, building trust and turning investment into meaningful environmental progress.

The National 15th Five-Year Plan emphasises accelerating the green transition and advancing low-carbon development. It also supports Hong Kong in building a commodity trading ecosystem. These priorities provide a clear direction for Hong Kong to contribute our financial expertise, international connectivity and professional services to national development and the global green transition.

As a key “super connector” linking the Mainland with international markets, we bring together Mainland industrial capabilities and green technologies with global capital and expertise. Our green finance market clearly demonstrates Hong Kong’s connecting role. Last year, green and sustainable debt issued in Hong Kong exceeded US$76 billion. Green and sustainable bonds arranged here amounted to around US$38 billion, representing approximately 40 per cent of the Asian market. Hong Kong has ranked first in Asia in this business for eight consecutive years.

Our role is not only to connect capital and green projects but to add value by having trusted standards and infrastructure that make those connections meaningful, bankable and investable.

Building on our strengths, we are broadening our green finance market, of which green commodity trading is an important emerging part of this. Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan proposes developing a commodity trading ecosystem with gold as an entry point. On gold, we are taking forward the development of clearing system, storage, supply and infrastructure related to gold trading to fully leverage the role of gold as a strategic asset, with a view to benchmarking other major international gold trading centres in the long run while developing hardware and software simultaneously.

Measures are already taking shape. These include expanding gold storage targeting a capacity of over 2 000 tonnes by 2028 and refining capability. We will formally launch Hong Kong’s dedicated gold central clearing and settlement system in the first quarter of next year, while promoting physical delivery, investment derivatives and risk management tools. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is also exploring increasing the Exchange Fund’s gold holdings to reinforce our strategic position.

Physical infrastructure, however, is only part of the equation. A credible green commodity market also needs trusted information about how commodities are produced. HKQAA’s Green Commodities Registration Scheme to be launched today is a crucial building block within this ecosystem. By introducing a trusted, transparent data registry for green production, it will facilitate the expansion of the physical gold market which is of high-integrity and comparable with global ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards and green finance demands.

I welcome the launch of this Scheme, and commend HKQAA under the Chairman and PC for helping connect commodity-market development with sustainability. Its expertise in standards, assessment and assurance will help build the trust needed to link greener production with financial opportunities.

Building that trust across our green finance market requires clear standards and comparable information. Green commodity aside, we are also strengthening our wider green finance ecosystem. The Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance now incorporates transition elements, while further expansion has been proposed. Our sustainability disclosure roadmap provides a pathway for large publicly accountable entities to adopt the ISSB Standards (International Financial Reporting Standards – Sustainability Disclosure Standards) fully by 2028. In this regard, I also thank HKQAA for launching in July this year the “Advancing a Sustainability Disclosure Ecosystem in the Financial Industry” initiative, which offers financial institutions a structured, credible and scalable framework for collecting and verifying sustainability data from their clients, investees, and business partners by leveraging the HKQAA’s data disclosure and assurance program. Together, these measures support informed investment and greater confidence in sustainability claims.

We are also broadening the range of market tools. Through Core Climate, Hong Kong connects participants with internationally certified carbon credits. Just this month, HKEX (Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited) completed cross-boundary pilots involving Green Electricity Certificates and the settlement of Shenzhen Emission Allowance transactions, building practical experience in regional green-market connectivity.

The electricity certificate pilot, conducted with partners including HKQAA, brought together 15 corporate entities and generated transactions of around 100 000 certificates. It demonstrates how collaboration can translate policy ambitions into practical channels for companies to meet renewable electricity commitments. HKEX is working with the Guangzhou Power Exchange Centre to develop these channels further.

Another important development is HKEX Green Equity, the voluntary designation programme launched on October 20 this year, just when we had the APEC FMM (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers’ Meeting) here in Hong Kong. Through a transparent framework and independent assessment, it helps investors identify companies with significant green business activities. Alongside carbon credits and electricity certificates, this initiative expands the tools available to connect capital with the green economy.

Our ambition extends beyond Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Belt and Road economies need financing, technology and expertise to build cleaner infrastructure and strengthen climate resilience. Hong Kong can help connect these needs with investment, while supporting green enterprises in reaching international markets.

The Green Accelerator, launched by the Hong Kong Green Finance Association in September this year, is a practical example. It provides incubation, acceleration and empowerment services for green technology projects in Belt and Road regions. Through project preparation and structuring, it helps address a critical obstacle: turning promising technologies into investment-ready projects that can attract private capital.

I am also very pleased to see that HKQAA and the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition, or BRIGC, are exploring closer collaboration on developing Belt and Road standards that support green development across participating countries. This is a timely exploration, because connecting standards with financing can help promising solutions move from individual projects towards wider adoption across markets.

Our task is to connect policy with markets, innovation with investment, and ambition with credible action. I very much look forward to working with HKQAA and all our partners to build trusted commodity markets, deepen green finance and advance a more sustainable Belt and Road. On that, I wish today’s forum every success and also good health to everyone here today.

Thank you.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at the Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit 2026 today (October 27):

Deputy Director Zhang Yong (Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)), Deputy Commissioner Zhang Changwei (Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the HKSAR), Vice President Yuan Mindao (Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries), Professor Priscilla Leung (Founding President and CEO of the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. A warm welcome to Hong Kong, and the second Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit.

I am delighted to address you today, a distinguished audience of university presidents and leaders, academic experts and outstanding students from all over the world. You’re here these next two days to share insights and build lasting connections. And you have come to the right place.

Hong Kong, a city of only 1,100 square kilometres in size, counts five universities among the world’s top 100. Three of them are among the most internationalised in the world. We attract students from more than 100 countries, with about 70 per cent of our academic staff from outside Hong Kong. English is the main medium of instruction in our universities.

Hong Kong operates under the common law system, enjoying academic freedom and the free flow of people, capital, ideas and information. These all spring from the “one country, two systems” principle – the unwavering support of our country, China, together with global connectivity.

Last month, the Hong Kong SAR Government launched Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan. In the coming five years, the Government is committed to building this city into an international hub for high-calibre talent. This aligns with our country’s strategy of inspiring the nation through science and education.

The Northern Metropolis is also central to the Five-Year Plan and Hong Kong’s future. The main focus of its development will be its three University Towns, which are based on the concept of development comprising campus area, technology area, industry area, and living community area. They will be developed to band together five elements: education, technology, industry, talent, and city development.

At the 2024 Summit, I mentioned that we had set aside more than 80 hectares of land in the Northern Metropolis for a new University Town. Our ambitions have only grown since then.

Those 80 hectares have now become about 300 hectares for campus areas across three university towns – at San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling. Together with surrounding technology and industry areas and planned communities, the overall area of the university towns will exceed 1 000 hectares.

Each town has a clear positioning. San Tin University Town will focus on medicine, life and health technology, AI, robotics, microelectronics, and emerging industries. It will be directly connected to the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone, as well as San Tin Technopole.

Hung Shui Kiu University Town will rise as a centre for applied university education in smart manufacturing and global talent cultivation. Three campus sites, about 26 hectares in all, are open for application, with results to be announced early next year.

Ta Kwu Ling University Town will include arts and “blue-green” elements, supporting emerging, traditional and new industries alike.

These three university towns are being built to attract the world’s finest scholars and students. We will invite institutions to establish basic research institutes and large-scale shared research platforms, including high-performance computing centres, joint laboratories and interdisciplinary research centres.

The towns are also designed to empower industry. We will encourage university staff to undertake research at companies. We will encourage industry professionals to contribute to university teaching and research. Our goal is to strengthen the links between industry, academia and research, enabling them to complement and reinforce one another.

Ladies and gentlemen, in times like these, co-operation, not isolation, is the road to take. I invite you all to find your partner and join us in Hong Kong, at the Northern Metropolis and its university towns, where the future of education, research, industry and technology is being built.

I am grateful to the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship for hosting this global gathering. My thanks also go to the supporting institutions: the University Grants Committee and our Hong Kong universities.

I wish you all a rewarding Summit and a memorable stay in Hong Kong, the world’s East meets West centre for international cultural exchange. Thank you.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Source: Government of Singapore

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, at the Annual Dinner of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) today (October 26):

Stephen (President of the HKICPA, Mr Stephen Law), Past Presidents, fellow members, ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening. It is my great pleasure to join you all at the 2024 Annual Dinner of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The theme of this year’s dinner is “Building Community”, which I believe is at the top of the HKICPA’s agenda as it continues to reposition itself and refocus its strategic plan on furthering the development of the profession under the new regulatory regime. At the same time, it also aptly summarises the underlying principle of the various initiatives that have been rolled out by the HKSAR Government over the past year.

In order to build an accounting community with high standards of professionalism and integrity, work has to be done both from within and without.

As sustainability disclosure has become an integral part of the global financial landscape, the development of green and sustainable finance in Hong Kong presents the golden opportunity to revitalise and expand the accounting community. The HKICPA has seized the occasion to lead the profession in taking an active role in the initiative, especially in our pursuit to be among the first jurisdictions to align the local sustainability disclosure requirements with the international standards issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

The HKICPA’s earlier consultation on the draft Hong Kong Standards is only the first step towards the development of the sustainability disclosure ecosystem in Hong Kong. Ongoing collaborations among the local accounting profession, other financial services sectors and the international community are crucial to enable credible implementation of disclosures, provide necessary support to and facilitate utilisation of technological solutions by preparers, reporting and assurance professionals, and sustainability-related service providers. These are all new pathways for the accounting sector to expand its presence and influence in the local, regional and global markets, which can lend to it renewed attraction to young talent.

In parallel to the ongoing endeavours to solidify the local accounting community, efforts are also being made to reinforce the long-standing connections with our counterparts from other local sectors as well as the Mainland and overseas.

Last month, the HKICPA hosted the 2024 Cross-straits, Hong Kong and Macau Accounting Profession Conference, which was the first after the suspension since 2019 due to the pandemic. I learned that it was a great success, bringing together accounting and other market leaders to engage in in-depth discussion and idea exchanges on salient development issues. Notably, it offered much inspiration on opportunities and challenges under the global sustainability development trends.

Most recently, we, in collaboration with the HKICPA, the Inland Revenue Department and the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC), have announced the initiative to require disclosure of practising certificate numbers in auditors’ reports and corporate tax returns. It is a proactive response to the profession’s concern over bogus CPAs (certified public accountants) and audit malpractices, which, as you would certainly agree, undermines the credibility of not only the profession but also financial reporting of the Hong Kong markets in general.

By requiring disclosure of practising certificate numbers, the initiative aims to enhance the accountability of auditors’ report signatories, heighten the awareness of users of accounting services about the importance of audit quality and, at the same time, facilitate the identification and elimination of black sheep from the sector. We believe with the concerted efforts of the sector, regulator, enforcement agents and the general public, the professional foundation of the local accounting community can be reinforced. With the members’ consultation on the amended professional standards under way, your support and insight would be invaluable in bringing the initiative into full play.

Ladies and gentlemen, with the new regulatory regime of the accounting sector entering its third year of operation, I am glad to see that the HKICPA has been proactive in maximising the value of the Institute as a statutory professional body to drive the various development initiatives in the pipeline. We look forward to the continued collaboration with the HKICPA, the AFRC and each and every one of you to create opportunities for the advancement of the accounting profession, the financial markets and the Hong Kong community as a whole.

Last but not least, my sincere thanks to the Institute for inviting me to this auspicious occasion, and may I wish you all good health and the best of business in the coming year. Thank you.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

     Jointly organised by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and the Environment and Ecology Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, and co-organised by the International Green Development Coalition for the Belt and Road Regions (IDGC), the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center of the MEE, and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the Belt and Road Green Innovation Conference 2026 (Green Innovation Conference) was held in Hong Kong today (October 26). Under the theme “Partnering with the Global South on Green Transition, Advancing Sustainable Development Worldwide”, the conference was held in Hong Kong for the first time, fully demonstrating Hong Kong’s unique position and key role in advancing global green development.

     The Green Innovation Conference gathered over 400 political and business leaders, representatives of international organisations, and experts and scholars from 17 Belt and Road countries and around 40 Mainland provinces and cities to engage in in-depth exchanges on topics such as green finance, green innovation, and digital empowerment. Senior officials from several Belt and Road countries, including the Union Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Mr Hsan Oo; the Advisor to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Environmental Issues and Chairman of the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Mr Aziz Abdukhakimov; the Special Envoy for Climate Change in the Executive Office of the President of Kenya, Mr Ali Mohamed; the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the HKSAR, Mr Cui Jianchun; Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR Mr Luo Yonggang; the President of the IDGC, Mr Zhao Yingmin; and the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Ms Sophia Chong, attended the conference in person, demonstrating the shared determination of all parties to drive green transition and deepen international co-operation.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region