The Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Institute, which will come into full operation later this year, will drive innovative AI research and development in the city and its industrial applications, the city’s justice chief said on Tuesday.

“No less important, it (the institute) will establish AI standards, building cross-sector and inter-regional AI collaboration platforms to promote AI's standardization and safe application,” Paul Lam Ting-kwok said while officiating at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data's 30th anniversary privacy protection summit.

The government of the special administrative region is determined to promote the safe and ethical use of AI at a time when digital transformation and AI are reshaping societies and economies around the world, he said.

A key regional hub for the free and orderly flow of information, data, and technology, Hong Kong has a long tradition of rigorously upholding privacy standards, he said.

Referring to the national 15th Five-Year Plan’s Digital China Initiative, which is designed to empower economic and social progress through digital and intelligent technologies and the expansion of AI+ applications, Lam said the plan also emphasizes the importance of privacy protection and cross-border law enforcement cooperation.

“As announced by the chief executive recently, Hong Kong will unveil its first Five-Year Plan later this year. It will align with the national 15th Five-Year Plan, driving Hong Kong's deeper integration into the overall national development,” he added.

Stressing that public confidence in the privacy and security of new technologies is crucial to their adoption, he said the work of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data is pivotal in instilling public confidence that technology can and must be used in an ethical and meaningful way.

Established in 1996 as an independent privacy authority, the office has performed not only as a regulator, but also as an enabler of responsible innovation, serving “as a steadfast guardian of personal data privacy”, the secretary for justice added.

The SAR government is committed to supporting the office as the city’s trusted privacy regulator and to ensuring it has all the necessary means to rise above the globalized reality of privacy threats, he said.

The summit brought together some 400 privacy regulators, data-protection experts, industry leaders and academics from the HKSAR as well as the Chinese mainland and the Asia-Pacific region.

Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the HKSAR Li Yongsheng, and Director-General of the Department of Law of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR Liu Chunhua were among the dignitaries who attended the event.