Following is the speech by the Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Raistlin Lau, at the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong International Licensing Show and Asian Licensing Conference 2025 today (April 28):

Margaret (Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Ms Margaret Fong), 張主任 (Director of the Asia Tourism Exchange Center, Mr Zhang Dong), Maura (President and Chief Executive Officer of Licensing International, Ms Maura Regan), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

     Good morning. It's my pleasure to join you all again at the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong International Licensing Show and Asian Licensing Conference 2025.

     For this year, the annual show has come to be the 22nd consecutive year in bringing more than 600 brands and 330 exhibitors to Hong Kong, connecting and creating significant business opportunities for cross-sectoral industries. 

     The Government is committed to developing Hong Kong into an East-meets-West Centre for international cultural exchanges, and the regional intellectual property (IP) trading centre. The past three Policy Addresses have announced a variety of policy measures and funding schemes to promote arts and culture development, from covering the promotion of Chinese culture to nurturing home-grown global IP for industries development.

     While continuing to cultivate talent for the industry and create cross-sector collaboration opportunities, the Government has injected HK$2.9 billion into the CreateSmart Initiative (CSI) in the 2024-2025 financial year. Part of the injection will be used to nurture cultural and creative projects with industrialisation potential and promote private market capital investment, so as to enable more spaces to create and produce cultural IP and explore business opportunities for Hong Kong, the Mainland and also beyond.

     Brand and intellectual property licensing has been proven as a cornerstone of the creative industries. The annual Hong Kong International Licensing Show is a flagship event in Asia that gathers global licensors and brand representatives in Hong Kong to explore infinite business opportunities with licensees, licensing agents and traders. In the three-day fair, among more than 330 exhibitors are 43 Hong Kong emerging design companies which will showcase their licensable designs in the Hong Kong Pavilion of the 6th DLAB (Design Licensing and Business (DLAB) Support Scheme), which is one of the CSI projects supported by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau.

     Another highlight that cannot be missed is the concurrent and leading Asian Licensing Conference which will have a total of 10 sessions featuring some 20 speakers, aiming to keep the industry players abreast of the knowledge and marketing intelligence. Through the sharing of insights and success stories by the world's most influential industry elites on a wide array of topics covering the latest developments in global licensing, sustainability in licensing, transformation in immersive art through technology in licensing, licensing opportunities with museums and of course more, participants will gain invaluable inspiration.

     Furthermore, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, this year we continue to have the "China Opportunity" with the newly introduced "Panda Economy" and "A Dialogue with Wan Pin Chu (朱芸編), Music Composer of Ne Zha". Together with the first-time participant of two Egyptian museums, and the two classic IPs "Snoopy" and "The Smurfs" from the US (United States) and Belgium, all that further reinforces Hong Kong's unique positioning as the global cultural exchange platform reaching out to the international audiences.

     Before I close, I would like to congratulate the Hong Kong Trade Development Council for successfully organising yet another great show again.

     I also wish all the exhibitors, visitors and participants rewarding results in the two prominent events. Thank you.  

Ends/Monday, April 28, 2025
Issued at HKT 11:58

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