Sun Dong: By the end of last year, the Hong Kong government had approved over 1.4 billion Hong Kong dollars in funding for AI development.

On January 21st, Professor Sun Dong, the Secretary for Innovation and Technology of Hong Kong, stated during a session at the Legislative Council that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the core industries in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government has been using the Innovation and Technology Fund to assist traditional industries in their digital transformation and intelligent upgrade. As of the end of last year, the Fund has approved over 1.4 billion Hong Kong dollars for AI-related projects, strengthening the competitiveness and innovation capabilities of the manufacturing industry. At the same time, the Fund has supported over 350 AI-related projects with a total amount of around 1 billion Hong Kong dollars to promote the development and technology transfer of AI. Professor Sun emphasized that the "industrial AI-ization" should be driven by market demand and application scenarios in order to effectively implement Hong Kong's excellent scientific research results. The various funding programs under the Innovation and Technology Fund cover a wide range of industries and provide different levels of technical and financial support for different stages of development of enterprises, adapting flexibly to market or enterprise needs for innovative technologies (including AI) and meeting various application scenarios of technological innovation and industry. In addition, in response to the urgent need of enterprises to accelerate digital transformation and utilize AI more effectively, the government is committed to optimizing existing funding programs related to AI. For example, the "Re-industrialisation Funding Scheme" was optimized last June to expedite project approvals, support businesses in upgrading transformation using technology (including AI), and has supported over 120 intelligent production lines so far. In addition, the "Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales" will incorporate AI and cybersecurity digital solutions to encourage SMEs to enhance their competitiveness through the application of AI. Sun mentioned that plans for a new round of funding and its execution details are being drafted and are expected to be consulted with the Legislative Council within this fiscal year. The AI Efficiency Enhancement Office suggested in the 2025 Policy Address aims to utilize its coordinating power to guide Hong Kong government departments in effectively applying AI technology at work, restructuring work processes, promoting departmental technological innovations, and introducing general AI tools in various government processes such as data analysis, customer services, and administrative work to enhance efficiency and better respond to the public's expectations for an efficient government and quality public services. Throughout this process, the Hong Kong government will collaborate with the industry to utilize AI to provide better, more convenient, and citizen-friendly public services. The goal of the AI Efficiency Enhancement Office is to launch AI tools covering 100 government processes by 2026 and expand to no fewer than 200 by the end of 2027, as well as gradually introduce flagship AI projects in 2026-27 and 2027-28 to speed up the processing and approval of various licenses and applications with the assistance of AI. Furthermore, the Digital Service Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government will provide "AI assistants" for the government's cross-department electronic service platforms "Smart Convenience" and "Digital Enterprise Identity," which respectively target citizens and enterprises. These AI assistants will use user demands and data to quickly respond to user queries and provide personalized services, with "Digital Enterprise Identity" recommending suitable funding programs and public service support to enterprises (especially SMEs) to help reduce operational costs. The electronic service optimization measures mentioned above are expected to be gradually rolled out within this year.