Hong Kong’s century-old charity will hold fast to its founding commitment to a people-first service and enhance care for teenagers and seniors, its top brass said on Friday, while signaling its readiness to embrace technologies and cement cross-boundary ties.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, York Tseng Hing-yip, chairman of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs), revealed plans to strengthen partnerships with fellow service organizations and local communities, as well as to begin launching artificial-intelligence technologies and robotic tools on the ground.

Charity Chief Executive Albert Su Yau-on, also speaking to reporters, added that TWGHs is also set to deploy further its deep expertise across health, education and social welfare to support Hong Kong in making the most of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s growth prospects, and will continue its efforts to enhance cross-border service synergy.

Tseng, who became the group’s chairman on April 1, said he intends to spend his one-year term upholding the charity’s century-old legacy of benevolence and social care, while reaching out to new partners across society and cultivating a broader base of support.

He said that his team has been reaching out to leading business figures and industry veterans to join the six-year “TWGHs x BOCHK U-Lead Youth Leaders Nurturing Scheme”, with “very encouraging responses”.

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Launched in October, the program targets 18-to-30-year-olds and brings in seasoned industry leaders to run career-planning seminars, sharing forums, luncheons and behind-the-scenes site tours, aiming to give young participants a taste of managerial work.

“TWGHs was built on a grand vision — to relieve suffering and serve every part of society,” Tseng said. “But making that vision a reality ultimately demands the support of all sectors and all people, working together and putting in the effort to contribute to the common good.”

He said public awareness of charity work in Hong Kong still had room for improvement and vowed to keep enhancing the charity’s public outreach.

Tseng added that Chinese mainland stakeholders had also lent substantial support to Hong Kong’s charity work. In the wake of the Wang Fuk Court fire disaster in November, the China Charity Federation disbursed 80 million yuan ($11.8 million) to TWGHs, which has since been used for affected residents’ daily expenses and post-disaster relief support, including handling issues related to ownership transfer.

In June, Tseng led a TWGHs top-level delegation to Beijing as part of the chairman’s regular introductory visits to central government bodies. They visited the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Education, among other official agencies. A new addition for this year was a visit to the federation to report on fund usage.

He said that the officials they met had provided many valuable suggestions, all of which the charity will follow through on.

Tseng said the trip to the mainland have him plenty of insights and practical references for TWGHs’ future regional partnerships and cross-border services — including cross-border elderly care, AI-powered community-care solutions, robot-assisted nursing and manual work, and a potential expansion of educational and volunteer programs for the “youngest-old” demographic; namely, individuals those 65 to 74 years old.

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Su added that the organization — having partnered with Guangdong’s stakeholders in education, health and social services for years — is now intensifying its effort riding on the Greater Bay Area’s ever-deepened integration.

On education, he said TWGHs had in recent years organized additional exchange trips to other Greater Bay Area cities in its effort to give Hong Kong students and teachers a clearer, more current picture of the rapid progress taking place in the region and across the country.

“There’s a clear trend underway in how Hong Kong nurtures its next generation,” Su said. “The more our teachers and students learn about the country’s development, the more we see young people turning their sight northward — choosing to study on the mainland, and to build their careers there.”

Su disclosed that already three Hong Kong students were now strong candidates for admission to Beijing’s Tsinghua University — one of the premier higher education institutions worldwide — via TWGHs’ recommendation.

Su said that on the social-services front, TWGHs has for the past two years taken the lead in holding thematic seminars in Greater Bay Area cities. These events have facilitated in-depth cooperation talks and two-way sharing of experience, while also proactively probing the viability of further aligning service processes and standards across the border.

The next session will take place in Foshan, Guangdong province, in August, with a focus on cross-border drug rehabilitation, palliative care, and community correction services.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com