The SAR government will enhance the regulatory regime of the tourism industry and strengthen the talent cultivation mechanism while enhancing tourism services and bolstering infrastructure and ancillary facilities.

It will launch a new specialized tourist guide licensing program to enhance the professionalism of tourist guides and work with the tourism industry and educational institutions to expand the talent pool of tourism professionals.

Besides fostering hospitality spirit, upgrading Muslim‑friendly facilities and enhancing service quality, the government will drive the application of smart technologies in the fields of tourism to create a convenient, inclusive, and smart tourism environment, comprehensively elevating the experience of visitors.

To deepen the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism, the government will deepen thematic travel experience and promote festive events with distinctive local and international characteristics to highlight Hong Kong’s East‑meets‑West cultural edge.

It will explore more routes for city walks, foster horse‑racing tourism, promote Hong Kong’s culinary offerings, expand and strengthen our annual flagship events and enhance connections and cooperation with world‑renowned wine‑producing regions. It will consolidate the city’s position as Asia’s hub for international cruises by attracting cruise lines to deploy ships to Hong Kong and leverage Hong Kong as the homeport.

“We will fully capitalize on Hong Kong’s beautiful coastline and abundant island resources to develop island‑hopping tours and other water sports activities," said Lee.

The government will advance the extension of suitable international IP treaties to Hong Kong in an orderly manner to enhance the international alignment and overall competitiveness of Hong Kong’s IP regime. “We will deepen our cross‑boundary facilitation measures for, among others, providing enquiry services in more mainland cities, fostering business collaboration, and facilitating cross‑boundary protection, etc., so as to fast‑track the processing of eligible cross‑boundary applications for registration, so that applicants may enjoy protection in a more timely manner,” said the CE.

The government will deepen the reform of the patent system and develop a thriving and sound IP trading ecosystem. “Through institutional innovation and policy support, we will develop an IP trading hub where the cost is low and the liquidity is high, encouraging enterprises to centralize their management and exploitation of IP in Hong Kong.”

The government will develop Hong Kong into an important gateway for the country to open up and cooperate with the world in the field of I&T by strengthening global cross‑disciplinary cooperation with world‑renowned institutions, research institutes, and I&T parks, said Lee.

It will develop an international platform to facilitate exchanges among high-caliber academics and talent and host international academic conferences and publish academic journals with global influence.

It will expedite setting up a center of excellence on global advanced manufacturing in Hong Kong, which will focus on empowering frontier technology‑enabled fields such as AI+manufacturing, robotics, new energy and industrial design.

The government will comprehensively intensify the regulatory reform of drugs and medical devices and enhance the city’s regulatory regime to align with international standards, develop the capacity for independent evaluation and approval of medical products, and participate actively in international regulation of medical products to pursue recognition from international authorities.

To developing Hong Kong into an international health and medical innovation hub, it will also advance the R&D of innovative drugs and medical devices to expedite the launch of innovative drugs for market use, and enhance the drive in the development of medical products within the GBA to promote better health among the public, said the CE.

“We shall develop Hong Kong into Asia’s premier early‑phase clinical trial center and a top‑notch medical innovation transformation base in the world.”

The government will promote AI as a core industry for the city’s future development and empower different sectors of the economy through AI technology, enhancing the AI ecosystem and continue to take forward the AI+ Initiative on all fronts.

“We will enhance the layout of computing infrastructure at full steam to empower development, and provide strong support for the computing power required to develop the AI industry in Hong Kong through the development of the Sandy Ridge Data Facility Cluster,” Lee said, adding the government will review the legislation to support wider application of AI, ensuring an up‑to‑date legal environment.

While supporting SMEs to expedite their application of AI, the government will also enhance AI literacy of the public, facilitating their enjoyment of a safe and convenient digital life. Based on life and health technology and embodied intelligence, it will formulate strategies for driving industry transformation with AI.

The government will advance the development of the three major I&T parks – the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone and San Tin Technopole, the Science Park and Cyberport.

A highly efficient mechanism for synergized innovation between the Hong Kong Park and the Shenzhen Park will basically be established by 2030, paving way for moving steadily towards the ultimate goal of developing a world‑class I&T hub, said Lee. “Together with Cyberport to the south focusing on digital technology (such as AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, and fintech, etc) and the Science Park in the central part of Hong Kong focusing on hard and core technology (such as life and health, and advanced manufacturing, etc) and enterprise incubation, these three major I&T parks will form the ‘north‑central‑south’ development paradigm in Hong Kong.”

Home to five higher education institutions ranked among the world’s top 100, Hong Kong will focus on international frontier technology fields and strengthen its basic scientific research capabilities in original innovation.

The government will actively advance the development of the three major I&T parks under the “north‑central‑south” spatial layout as well as the five key R&D institutions so as to establish a global industry‑academia‑research collaborative innovation platform and develop Hong Kong into an internationally competitive advanced R&D center and pilot production and transformation base for technology industries.

The government will also bring together global top talent and scientific research resources to actively promote the development of new industrialization system with Hong Kong character, while planning for future industries, said Lee. “We will also develop Hong Kong into a health and medical innovation hub with global influence.”

Besides promoting the import and export of digital technology, products and services, the government will enhance the data services industry chain, explore facilitation arrangements for cross‑boundary data flow within the GBA, and participate in international governance of digital trade. The city will facilitate digitalization of business‑to‑business trade documents by introducing local legislative amendments, allowing the industry to develop technical solutions that suit their actual needs.

“We will promote the upgrading, restructuring, and digital transformation of SMEs, as well as their application of emerging technologies by providing flexible funding support, capacity building, training, assistance in promotion, etc,” Lee said, adding SMEs will be encouraged to develop e‑commerce supply chains through the city’s cross‑border e‑commerce networks connecting the mainland and the world, and leverage platform data analysis to refine their product strategies and marketing campaigns.

The GoGlobal Task Force will continue to expand and consolidate the functions of the Economic and Trade Offices in the mainland and overseas, Invest Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to echo with the country’s plan to improve the comprehensive overseas services system and guide mainland enterprises to set up their cross‑border industry and supply chains. “We will build an integrated ecosystem covering core functions such as overseas market analysis, risk management, legal and dispute resolution services, international branding, supply chain collaboration and enhancement, as well as cross‑border financing to assist enterprises in effectively addressing global market challenges.”

The city will offer contract management and cross‑border legal and dispute resolution services and will enhance the standards for testing and international certification for mainland enterprises and brands, he added.