Welcome Address by Ir Allen Yeung, JP, Government Chief Information Officer, at the “London-HK Smart City Development Interchange Meeting cum MOU Signing Ceremony”

Eric (Yeung), Dr (Alastair) Moore, Professor Cai (Hongbin), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. I am grateful for this opportunity to witness the Smart City Consortium signing the Memoranda of Understanding with the University College London and the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has strong and long-standing ties with the United Kingdom. On smart city development, we believe Hong Kong will benefit from collaboration with overseas smart cities, including London.

In the 2017 Policy Address, the Chief Executive re-affirmed the Government’s commitment to develop Hong Kong into a smart city. We have completed a consultancy study in June 2017 to assist in the formulation of the Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint.

After nine months consultation with many stakeholders, including SCC, we published the consultancy study report on June 30. The report has recommended development goals and plans for Hong Kong, covering six areas namely “Smart Mobility”, “Smart Living”, “Smart Environment”, “Smart People”, “Smart Government” and “Smart Economy”. The report also proposes a strategic framework that includes short-term, mid-term and long-term measures, and sets policy objectives to allow the Government and other stakeholders to consider the proposed actions based on feasibility, priority and resource allocation.

The report also considers collaboration between the public and private sectors a key success factor of smart city. We would like to hear from any possible partnership models and initiatives.

The findings of the report serve a good reference basis for the development of a smart city blueprint. In the next two months in Aug and Sept, we will conduct public engagement to obtain feedback on various recommendations in the report. In particular, while big data analytics plays an important role in a smart city, what data we can collect from citizens and how to use them are part of the consensus we need to form. We will take into account Hong Kong’s unique circumstances and relevant policies, and discuss with relevant bureaux and departments to consider feasible initiatives to promote smart city in different areas. We aim to publish the blueprint in the third quarter of 2018 or sooner.

I encourage everyone to join hands in building HK as a world renowned smart city. In which, people are proud to live and business are keen to be based in HK.

Thank you.

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