Mr. Gary YEUNG, MH

    President,

    Smart City Consortium

Running an organization is not easy especially when it is hard to start a business and hard to keep it going. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude for the contribution made by the three Honorary Presidents who have laid a solid foundation for Smart City Consortium (SCC) and have nurtured Hong Kong as a smart city. I am also grateful for all the support from the council members and members who elected me as the President since May 2019 so that I can have the chance to lead and contribute to SCC.

Putting Forward Suggestions for Smart City

SCC has provided multiple professional advice to policy formulation, which includes submitting a proposal for the development of smart city to the Government and holding meetings with different Government departments regularly to discuss the latest progress of the development. The concept of smart city that few people in Hong Kong were aware in the past has grown into a hot topic that everyone is talking about. This is the achievement of SCC. Now, smart city has finally come to the implementation stage, I am really excited about a new face of Hong Kong in the near future.

Encouraging Citizens to Join and Promote Smart City 3.0

In the last few years, SCC has been actively building an effective communication network with the academic and business sector, industry specialists, non-profit groups and organizations. On the academic front, we have built the Smart City Academy in collaboration with local universities to develop courses on technology related topics, to help train more talent.

 

Smart City Development Improves the Quality of Life

Auto-toll for car parks, remote tablebooking chit from restaurants, mobile ordering and mobile payment, etc., smart city has smartened up many aspects of daily lives and activities. Promoting the development of innovation and technology was initially led by the technology sector, now it is mainly led by the government to enhance the quality of life. Mobile payment in mainland China such as Alipay and WeChat Pay has been changing people’s lifestyle and the public has definitely benefited from it. The rapid growth of mobile payment there is exactly a good example in which the government has played a crucial role in facilitating the development.

Electronic Identity is Foundation for Smart City

In addition to the innovative payment system, SCC has been striving to implement electronic identity (eID), which is one of the foundations in developing smart city. Through the internet, eID confirms identity of a person by checking against data stored in the physical world for online identity verifications. In future, it is expected that eID will cross the border and will be applicable to other countries and regions. In fact, many European countries have already started to examine how to apply their own eID beyond their sovereignty, making wider use of this application.

While cities are progressing rapidly, one day we will experience resource exhaustion. When developing smart city, we should also conserve and preserve the environment and at the same time exploring new energy sources, in order to sustain a safe and livable planet.

From now on, I will continue on the path laid by our three Honorary Presidents, to promote a comprehensive implementation of smart city in Hong Kong together and keep marching towards “Smarter City, Smarter Hong Kong”!