The opening ceremony began with a welcome speech by Bernard, Chairperson of the HKCSS, and followed by three keynote speeches delivered by Chris Sun, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Prof. Ma, Dept of Social Governance and Ecological Advancement of National Academy of Governance, and Louise Pulford, CEO of Social Innovation Exchange of the UK. Secretary Sun mentioned that the government has currently adopted the strategy of Targeted Poverty Alleviation to help households residing in subdivided units, single-parent households and elderly households through “The Strive and Rise Programme” and “Community Living Room”.

 

Secretary Sun also emphasized the importance of government-led collaborative model which he expects the utilization of AI and data connectivity to prepare for the arrival of the next generation senior and formulate appropriate poverty alleviation strategies for the next 10, 20 or even 30 years, making a healthy ageing Hong Kong. Prof. Ma then explained the shared prosperity by using a metaphor of Cake Theory which is about economic development and the reallocation of resources in China. Meanwhile, Louise highlighted the significant role of social innovation and systematic changes in creating a better future and also encouraged government, business sectors and NGOs to take a longer-term view on policy decisions. A Q&A session chaired by Hoi-wai, Chief Executive of the HKCSS concluded the opening ceremony.

 

Rosana of Yau Lee Group has attended the opening ceremony this morning and would like to thanks all speakers for the inspiring sharing. Rosana believed that the collaboration between government, business sectors and NGOs is very important. Therefore, she established Prosit Philosophiae Foundation in 2012 and supported The University of Hong Kong and UK’s Royal College of Art to set up Future Cities Labs to explore intergenerational cities and dynamic intelligence, through a Private, Public, Global Academic Partnership (PPGAP), towards smart and sustainable future cities and ultimately bring more better choices for our next generations.