The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, officiated at the Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE) Office Opening Ceremony this afternoon (October 30) and witnessed with leaders of various trades and partners the official establishment of HKTE, a new milestone of the Government's endeavours to trawl for and retain talent.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Mr Chan said, "To create strong impetus for Hong Kong's growth, the current-term Government boldly and innovatively formulated an array of measures to trawl for talent. They included the establishment of the HKTE online platform, the newly introduced Top Talent Pass Scheme, and enhancements to various existing talent admission schemes by the end of last year to proactively attract talent around the world to Hong Kong.
"Our results speak for themselves. In the first nine months of this year, some 160 000 applications in total were received under the various talent admission schemes, with over 100 000 of them approved. Around 60 000 talents so far have had their visas approved to come to Hong Kong, far exceeding our key performance indicator of drawing at least 35 000 talents per year."
Mr Chan added that "The Chief Executive's 2023 Policy Address" fully adopted the prevailing strategy of trawling for and retaining talent. Further measures were rolled out, including expanding the coverage of universities under the Top Talent Pass Scheme, relaxing visa requirements, and introducing a stamp duty suspension arrangement for incoming talent acquisition of residential properties. He stressed he had full confidence that HKTE, together with the array of measures to trawl for and retain talent, would help develop Hong Kong into an international talent hub and make new contributions to the country's high-quality development.
Mr Chan; the Convenor of the Non-official Members of the Executive Council, Mrs Regina Ip; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun; the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Ms Alice Lau; the Director-General of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, Mr Philip Yung; the Deputy Secretary for Labour and Welfare (Manpower), Ms Angelina Kwan; and the Director of HKTE, Mr Anthony Lau, jointly officiated at the launching ceremony, which marked the official commencement of the HKTE's operation.
In addition, invited talent from the Mainland and overseas shared at the opening ceremony their experiences of pursuing their careers in Hong Kong as well as their insights into the city's future development. Also attending the opening ceremony today included Legislative Council members and representatives of advisory bodies, the business sector, professional associations, non-governmental organisations and the HKTE's designated partners.
"The Chief Executive's 2023 Policy Address" announced the establishment of HKTE, which serves as the designated agency to formulate talent attraction strategies and provide support services for talent in Hong Kong. HKTE will aim at assisting talent in their long-term development in Hong Kong and formulate targeted recruitment and publicity strategies for different talent groups. HKTE will also collaborate with the Dedicated Teams for Attracting Businesses and Talents under the Government's Mainland Offices and overseas Economic and Trade Offices in carrying out proactive external promotions of Hong Kong, so as to attract more talent to come to Hong Kong to pursue development.
Furthermore, HKTE will reach out to recruit partners for rendering appropriate support, through physical and online activities as well as services, to those talent interested in coming to Hong Kong or those who have just arrived in the city for their living, work, children's education, etc to facilitate their settlement. HKTE will also keep in touch with those talent who have arrived in Hong Kong to understand their development and needs in Hong Kong, so as to gather useful references for policy review and adjustment of support services in future.
HKTE is located on 12/F, Revenue Tower, 5 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai. Apart from visiting the office in person, incoming talent or those interested in coming to Hong Kong to pursue development can view its website (www.hkengage.gov.hk) or make enquiries with HKTE via email (enquiry@hkengage.gov.hk), LinkedIn or WeChat. Talent from around the world can also learn more about the details of the Government's various talent admission schemes through the Dedicated Teams for Attracting Businesses and Talents under the Government's Mainland Offices and overseas Economic and Trade Offices.
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