The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, said at a dialogue session at the RISE 2018 conference at noon yesterday (July 10) that she will lead Hong Kong to develop innovation and technology (I&T) by devoting a large amount of resources in it and providing support to start-ups proactively.
      
     Mrs Lam had a dialogue with the moderator on ways to promote I&T development at a session with an audience of over 1 000 people.  Mrs Lam said that Hong Kong has room for improvement in the development of smart city but the city is quickly catching up and a favourable environment for I&T is being created in Hong Kong through the eight-pronged approach outlined by her earlier. She added that the Government has set up a Financial Leaders Forum, chaired by the Financial Secretary, which facilitated the amendments of the Listing Rules, helping companies from emerging and innovative sectors list in Hong Kong. Noting that Hong Kong possesses advantages in scientific research, she expressed the hope that with support in areas such as resources, nurturing of talent and working space, as well as complementarity with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, transformation of scientific and technological achievements will be enhanced. She said she welcomes talent from around the world to develop careers in Hong Kong.
      
     After the dialogue session, Mrs Lam toured the booths set up by some Hong Kong-based start-ups. Products on display were designed with a combination of technology and creativity, including a social e-commerce platform to which users can upload photos of clothes to find out where they can be bought, a 3D body measurement scanning device to help consumers buy well-fitting clothes and customised T-shirt service.
      
     RISE is the largest technology conference in Asia. It is held from July 9 to 12 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre this year, attracting about 15 000 representatives from more than 100 countries and regions to take part, including entrepreneurs, investors and startup representatives.

Ends/Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Issued at HKT 0:19

NNNN