Hong Kong’s bid to become a global paradigm of digital education won strong backing on Wednesday, as the Hong Kong Learning and Teaching Expo 2025 brought together global educators, policymakers, and industry insiders to discuss the city’s strengths in a robust education-technology ecosystem and international connectivity.

The expo also saw the opening of Hong Kong’s first Digital Education Week 2025 — a brand-new weeklong annual education event, which debuted on Monday and features an international summit on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in language learning and teaching and other subjects, and a post-summit series of workshops.

The LTE 2025 — supported by the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, presented by Hong Kong Education City (EdCity) and organized by the Smart City Consortium (SCC) — runs for three days, until July 4, and features over 600 exhibition booths, over 270 keynote speeches, seminars, demonstration classes, and product displays under the banner “Education: A Shared Future for All”.

READ MORE: Hong Kong Unveils Digital Education Week at EdCity’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

Officiating at the opening ceremony, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Education, Christine Choi Yuk-lin, praised the event and spelled out its close alignment with the country’s national education blueprint.

“The (expo’s) focus on innovation aligns perfectly with our country’s direction,” Choi said, referring to the 2024-2035 master plan for building China into a leading country in education, which emphasizes the role of education in technological advancement and overall national development.

Choi added that the Steering Committee on Strategic Development of Digital Education — established in January following Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s 2024 Policy Address announcing that the city’s digital education development would be expedited — has been gathering feedback from key stakeholders in the field.

In Hong Kong, the key to advancing digital education lies in enhancing students’ digital literacy and foundational skills as well as their media and information literacy, and supporting teachers’ professional training and upskilling, she said.

According to Choi, in the 2023-24 school year, the Quality Education Fund supported a total of 22 innovative projects on AI and big data technologies in a bid to enhance e-teaching and learning across subjects.

Welcoming the expo, EdCity’s chairman, Armstrong Lee Hon-cheung, described it as “a pivotal moment” for EdCity as the city’s preeminent convener and innovation architect in digital education.

The expo — now marking its 15th edition — remains committed to uniting all pillars of the digital education ecosystem within the city, from government and industry, to stakeholders in academia, research, and investment, Lee said.

EdCity has been throwing hefty support behind efforts to further the digital education shift within Hong Kong.

Over the last year, EdCity has organized 151 teaching events to prime nearly 5,800 teachers in groundbreaking digital tools and innovative pedagogical knowledge to enable them to better inspire young students through future-oriented, AI-driven, cross-disciplinary lesson designs, Lee said.

“I think in Hong Kong, the adoption of AI in education is still in the starting stage. That’s why EdCity, as our mission, is to promote the further adoption of AI in various education sectors,” Lee said during an interview with China Daily.

But Hong Kong is in “a very good and unique position” to rev up an AI-empowered education transformation, Lee added, thanks to the city’s “solid base” of actively engaged stakeholders across related fields.

In broader terms, the expo is poised to bolster its sphere of influence, with plans to further promote Hong Kong’s high-quality development of digital education with greater national and international synergies.

“This year, we have involved more exhibitors from overseas as well as the Chinese mainland, particularly those from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA),” Lee said.

He said that the expo has doubled the number of mainland speakers and seen a significant rise in the number of international speakers.

Gary Yeung, president of SCC, expanded on this in his closing remark: “This year, we shine a spotlight on the remarkable contributions from our Asian partners,” he said, “and we are devoted to connecting Asian educational initiatives and showcasing the best practices from across the region.”

More than 20 Asian companies — among them, South Korea and Singapore — showcased their digital education solutions at the expo.

READ MORE: HK to host inaugural Digital Education Week, driving innovation in EdTech

The aim is to run at full speed. “As we look ahead, we are excited to enhance collaboration among nations outside Asia. Our goal is to transform the expo into a true educational festival,” Yeung said.

Apart from the newly established Chinese mainland zone and an international pavilion, key initiatives such as the Principals’ Conference, the Kid’s Al Summit, the Language Learning Hub, and the Startups Circle have gained strong traction.

At the expo, the educational arm of China Daily Hong Kong — VDO English — presented its latest release of Panda Challenge and Q-Writer, two platforms designed to enhance English learning for Hong Kong secondary students.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com