Insight from Huang Zhiguang deputy government CIO Hong Kong.
The SAR government has been committed to promoting STEM education and nurturing new forces for the development of Hong Kong’s innovation and technology.
In the budget announced last year, we set aside 40 million yuan to arrange short-term internships for undergraduates and postgraduates studying STEM-related courses in local universities. As of December, last year, 1,600 students had participated in internships. In addition, we also launched the “Secondary IT Innovation Lab Project” in December last year, providing each publicly funded secondary school in Hong Kong with a subsidy of up to $1 million to organize IT-related extracurricular activities in addition to traditional classroom learning. This strengthens the cultivation of secondary school students’ interest in information technology, and enhances their digital skills, computational thinking, and innovation capabilities, so as to strengthen the supply chain of Hong Kong’s innovation and technology talents. The project has received more than 40 applications so far.
The “Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Program” announced by the Chief Executive in the “2020 Policy Address” is now inviting companies with business operations in Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area to apply to participate, providing Hong Kong university graduates to live in the Greater Bay Area. And employment opportunities, allowing them to personally experience and grasp the development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area.
The plan provides a total of 2,000 employment places, of which about 700 are specially designed for innovation and technology positions, with a monthly salary of no less than 18,000 yuan. The government will provide a monthly allowance of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars for each employed graduate to the company for the longest period 18 months.
Hong Kong is still facing the severe test of the COVID-19 disease. Innovative technology happens to be of great use and plays a major role in fighting the epidemic. For example, we set up an interactive map of the local situation of the novel coronavirus in February last year, using open data to allow the public to grasp the latest epidemic.
We have also used geofencing technology in conjunction with electronic bracelets in the “Home Security Anti-epidemic” application to support compulsory home quarantine. We have quickly established multiple information technology systems to effectively support various government departments in implementing different epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic measures, such as registering and distributing copper core anti-epidemic masks for citizens, implementing community testing programs and cash distribution programs.
We also launched the “Travel with peace of mind” mobile application in November last year to facilitate the public to record travel data under the “new normal” of the epidemic, so as to reduce the risk of the spread of the virus in the community. I hope everyone can make full use of technology to help Hong Kong get out of the epidemic as soon as possible.
In addition, we also launched a one-stop personalized digital service platform “Smart Convenience” last month, allowing citizens to log in and use more than 20 commonly used government and two-electricity and one-coal services through personal mobile phones as a single digital identity. Online service enjoys a brand-new personalised service experience. We expect that by the middle of this year, more than 110 government online services will adopt this platform, and then it will be extended to the online services of the Hospital Authority and other public and private organizations.
In the digital age of rapid technological change, citizens will have higher expectations for the use of innovative technologies to build smart cities.
To this end, we have put forward more than 130 measures in the newly announced “Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint 2.0”.
The goal is to facilitate the people and benefit the people, so that the citizens can better feel the development of smart cities and innovative technology can bring to their daily lives. Various benefits.
The future development of scientific and technological talents in Hong Kong depends on the joint efforts of the industry and academia, complementing each other. I hope that everyone can continue to actively participate in various types of innovation and technology activities, promote the development of Hong Kong’s innovation and technology, and contribute to building a smart city and improving the quality of life of citizens.
