“ForeSight 2023 - Leveraging Technologies for New Economic Chapters” Business Leaders and Technology Experts Share Macroeconomic Outlook & Top 10 Technologies

(Hong Kong, 2 December 2022) The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) today held its signature event of the year “ForeSight 2023” at the Hong Kong Science Park. Under the theme of “Leveraging Technologies for New Economic Chapters”, the event featured two leadership discussion forums, aiming to inspire participants with in-depth analysis and exchange on the global economic outlook and latest technology trends and enable them to learn how Hong Kong enterprises, especially SMEs, can seize new opportunities from the trends to get set for new horizons.

“ForeSight 2023” received overwhelming response. A full house of over 600 guests from the public, industry, academic, research and media sectors attended the event onsite while over 120,000 joined through Mainland online platform.

Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC, said, “Hong Kong, with its pivotal position, has served as an international super connector between Mainland China and the rest of the world in the areas of manufacturing, trade and finance for decades. With the new economy and rapid development in innovation and technology (I&T), Hong Kong stands to have a new super connector role in technology transfer, with focus on the commercialisation and transfer of Chinese technologies to the global arena. In addition, by leveraging Hong Kong’s uniqueness in the implementation of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, the city's dual roles in supporting the Mainland to ‘go global and attract foreign investment’ has taken on new momentum, in the development of indigenous innovation in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). To support these new roles for Hong Kong, HKPC will continue to promote the upgrading and transformation of Hong Kong industries, expand the local talent pool, and enhance Hong Kong's unique advantages, thereby enabling Hong Kong to fully grasp the opportunities presented by the National 14th Five-Year Plan and GBA development, and better integrate itself into the country’s overall development.”

The HKSAR Government also supported “ForeSight 2023”, with Mr Joseph CHAN, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, delivering the opening address for the event. He said, “The Government has been promoting the development of I&T in Hong Kong with a view to further creating new impetus of growth of our economy. FinTech is one of the key development areas and we work with our relevant partners, including financial regulators, incubators, promotion agencies, corporates and financial institutions, to facilitate Hong Kong’s FinTech development. Our multi-pronged approach includes enhancing FinTech infrastructures, promoting Hong Kong’s FinTech competitiveness internationally, launching support schemes to incentivise digitisation of financial services, cultivating local and imported FinTech talents as well as creating and enabling regulatory environment for local innovation and cross-boundary collaboration. With concerted efforts, the FinTech ecosystem in Hong Kong is now very vibrant.”

Heavyweight guest speakers Mr George LEUNG, CEO of Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce; Mr Charles LI, Founder and Chairman of Micro Connect; and Prof Justin LIN, Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics of Peking University, joined Hon TAN for the first forum under “ForeSight 2023”, titled “Macroeconomic Forecast”. In the forum, they shared their insights on the global macro-economy, Hong Kong’s integration with the national economic development through upgrading and transforming the local industry with I&T, and how forward-looking enterprises can seize opportunities and thrive in the future by leveraging the digital economy, financial technology, artificial intelligence, life and health technology, as well as intelligent manufacturing which have potential for rapid growth.

Meanwhile, in the second forum titled “Top 10 Technologies in 2023”, a stellar line-up of top technology experts joined Mr Edmond LAI, Chief Digital Officer of HKPC, to unveil and explore top 10 technologies that are expected to exert crucial influence on the society. The technology experts included Prof CHAN Ching-chuen, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Honorary Professor of University of Hong Kong; Prof Tim CHENG, Vice-President for Research and Development of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Prof PAN Fusheng, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor in Chongqing University, China; Dr SHEN Weijun, Director and Senior Investigator of Centre of Translational Research, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. The top 10 technologies, ranked as follows, were regarded to have the potential of fostering more economic, social and industry growth; raising the quality of life by a significant extent; contributing to the development of smart city; and promoting more cross-industry and regional collaboration. The technologies were selected from a shortlist of 57 hottest technologies by a panel of 13 reputable experts of different technology fields from Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the United States.

Hon TAN added, “Foresight 2023 is being held at a critical juncture for Hong Kong as it is entering a golden time to harness I&T to relaunch the economy. The HKSAR Government released a forward-looking Policy Address last month, and will unveil Hong Kong’s blueprint for I&T development this month. Hong Kong also has the distinctive advantages of the country’s strong support and extensive connections with the world. All these will set the scene for the I&T sector to flourish in Hong Kong. HKPC is committed to continuing our full-spectrum support to the government in this respect. In holding today’s event, we hope that it can serve as an ideal platform for top business leaders and technology experts to share insights and exchange views for the participating parties to feel the pulse of the city’s economy and look into technology trends that stand to benefit industry players and the local community, as we all uphold the ultimate aim to relaunch Hong Kong’s economy.”

“ForeSight” is HKPC’s signature event since 2020, bringing together government and business leaders, industry heavyweights and technology experts to help Hong Kong enterprises capture the essence of impending economic development and technology trends in the year ahead. For more information about “ForeSight 2023”, please visit: https://foresight2023.hkpc.org/en/index.php.

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Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC (first from right), joined heavyweight guest speakers Mr George LEUNG, CEO of Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (third from right); Mr Charles LI, Founder and Chairman of Micro Connect (second from right); and Prof Justin LIN, Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics of Peking University (first from left), for the first forum under “ForeSight 2023”, titled “Macroeconomic Forecast”, to share their insights on the global macro-economy.

In the second forum titled “Top 10 Technologies in 2023”, a stellar line-up of top technology experts including Prof CHAN Ching-chuen, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Honorary Professor of University of Hong Kong (third from right); Prof Tim CHENG, Vice-President for Research and Development of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (second from right); Prof PAN Fusheng, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor in Chongqing University, China (second from left); Dr SHEN Weijun, Director and Senior Investigator of Centre of Translational Research, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (third from left), joined Mr Edmond LAI, Chief Digital Officer of HKPC (first from right), to unveil and explore 10 technologies that are expected to exert crucial influence on the society.