President's Message (5 January 2024)

Dear member

Though we are still two months away from the Hong Kong Engineers Week 2024 (HKEW 2024), there is no harm in planning ahead for your participation. The best and shortest route is via our newly launched HKEW website (https://hkengineersweek.com/). There, you can make a note of whichever activities you find interesting. There will be, in March, the HKEW Carnival and the career fairs. On the other hand, “Our Future Engineers” Secondary Student Quiz Contest would certainly appeal to those of you who are actively involved, as dedicated alumni, in your alma mater’s affairs. While there’s still time—the registration deadline is 31 January—line up a team and hand in your application!

Two other HKEW competitions—”Engineer Alliance” and “GBA Tertiary Institution Innovation Project Invitational Competition”—proved hugely popular, garnering an overwhelming response. Going over the carefully prepared submissions, we cannot but be pleased by our young engineers’ enthusiasm for the promotion and advancement of their own profession. It is exactly this kind of enthusiasm that I hope our event for primary school students—“Our Dream City” Design Contest—will inspire in our still younger future engineers.

On the 15th of this month, The President Forum will return with another instalment. This time around, it will take the form of a seminar—on Northern Metropolis’ development blueprint and vision. Mr Vic Yau (Director of the Northern Metropolis Co-ordination Office), 孫楠先生 (黨組成員，深圳市科學技術協會) and I will speak on the subject, each from our own perspective—that is to say, the perspectives of the government, Greater Bay Area (GBA), and the Institution. Of course, we would also love to hear your thoughts. Reserve a place here by 10 January.

It can be said that, just as Northern Metropolis’ importance lies in its bridging role within the GBA, GBA’s importance rests, in turn, on its ability to reach out to the rest of the country and even to the world. From 19 to 22 January, the Institution will take the lead in this: It will send a delegation of GBA engineers—from Guangdong, Macao, and Hong Kong—to Beijing and Tianjin. With this delegation, we hope to get the participants (approximately 60 of them) in deeper and more sustained conversation with the young engineers in those two cities. Getting them to know more about our nation is of course another of our goals.

There has been more to our efforts to strengthen exchange and collaboration with our Mainland counterparts. On 29 December, a plaque-unveiling ceremony was held in which the Institution joined a few organisations in signing a contract with Shenzhen Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovative Industry Development Co. Ltd. This was a major milestone in the ever-deepening professional relationship between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

December was rather rich with cross-sectional knowledge-sharing activities about urban development. On the 12th, I attended the 2023 Forum on Future Urban Construction and Sustainable Development, where experts, officials and business leaders came together to discuss topics ranging from cutting-edge strategies for urban planning to the latest technologies used in Smart Building. On the 14th, I officiated at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Cross-Strait Hong Kong and Macau Urban Construction and Sustainable Development Forum, which featured exchange of ideas among engineers from Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan on the theme “Transportation and City”.

I will conclude by mentioning a matter of personal importance to many of you. Starting from FY 2024-2025, e-membership cards will be issued for Corporate and Associate Members, following their implementation for Student Members since FY 2021-2022. Similar arrangements have been made for Graduate Members, Companions, and Affiliates since FY 2022-2023. It marks a new phase in our ongoing digitalisation project and future member service enhancements.

Seizing this opportune moment, I extend my wishes for a highly successful year ahead, marked by prosperity and notable achievements.