Top executives from around Asia and the Pacific meeting at the Asia-Pacific Business Forum (APBF) 2023 today (November 22) called for the private sector to lead the way towards greener and more sustainable business practices.

     With the theme "An Asia Pacific Green Deal for Business: Driving the Green Transformation", this year's APBF opens discussions on how businesses are decarbonising their operations and scaling up sustainability initiatives in the region. Participants are introduced to the Asia-Pacific Green Deal for Business digital platform, and are able to meet key decision makers, business leaders and emerging entrepreneurs committed to sustainable development across the region.

     Speaking at the inaugural session, the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, said, "Decarbonisation and green transition involve a huge amount of investment. Estimates have indicated that Asia alone will need US$66 trillion in the coming three decades. It is clear that governments cannot fund them on their own. The private sector's resources must be effectively mobilised."

     "The HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Government is committed to working with the business sector to realise green transformation in Hong Kong, and contribute to the regional decarbonisation progress," he added.

     "The responsibility is now on the business community to not only set in place genuine and ambitious actions to meet their commitments but to multiply their efforts by bringing new businesses into the sustainability sphere," said the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Ms Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, in her opening remarks at the inaugural session of the forum this morning.

     The Chair of the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN), Dr George Lam, said in his welcome statement that, with Asia and the Pacific being the world's largest and fastest-growing economic region and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, the region is also where the private sector should and can take the leading role in closely collaborating with governments and communities towards achieving the green transformation of the region.

     The two-day forum will conclude tomorrow (November 23) with the Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan, scheduled to give a keynote address on Hong Kong's quest for carbon neutrality before 2050.

     Jointly organised by the ESCAP and the ESBN with support from the Environment and Ecology Bureau of the HKSAR Government, the APBF is the only public-private sector regional dialogue and networking event that effectively and proactively engages businesses committed to sustainable development across the region, bringing together government officials, entrepreneurs, investors, private sector enterprises and academia from Asia and the Pacific. Additional participants from chambers of commerce, industry, associations and business networks are expected to raise greater awareness about the ESBN and the Green Deal as well as expanding the ESBN's membership.

     The annual forum also allows participants to showcase pilot projects and innovation solutions towards achieving the sustainable development goals and climate goals through private sector initiatives and public-private partnerships.

        

     Following is a question by Dr the Hon Chow Man-kong and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (November 22):
      
 Question:
      
     The Police's information shows that 18 743 deception cases were recorded in Hong Kong in the first half of this year, representing an increase of 52.1 per cent compared with the same period last year, and among them, about 75 per cent were online deception cases, with the cases being mainly telephone deception cases, phishing scams, etc. Regarding measures to combat deception cases, will the Government inform this Council:
      
(1) as it is learnt that many incoming calls from outside Hong Kong have appeared in the community, but the numbers of such incoming calls do not have a "+" sign and are 8-digit Hong Kong telephone numbers, and the callers impersonate government officers to defraud members of the public, of the measures currently put in place by the authorities to combat such deception cases, and whether they will consider adding, for example, a "*" symbol in the calling number display in respect of all telephone calls made by government departments and public organisations, or sending out voice alert in respect of such incoming calls, so as to facilitate identification and verification of incoming calls by members of the public; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
      
(2) (i) of the training programmes which the various disciplined services and relevant government departments provide for serving and newly-‍appointed officers to enhance their capability to combat deception cases, and (ii) whether the various disciplined services and relevant government departments will consider collaborating with post-secondary institutions (especially self-financing institutions) on offering more degree or continuing education programmes which are mainly for upgrading cybersecurity skills, with a view to nurturing more cybersecurity professional talents, thereby tackling the trend of technology-related deception cases becoming rampant; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
      
(3) as the Police indicated at the special meeting of the Panel on Security of this Council on February 14 this year that they had already liaised with a film production company and intended to produce a film with the theme of common deception tactics, of the progress and details of the relevant work, and whether they will draw reference from the Mainland's experience in producing anti-telephone deception films (e.g. No More Bets), with a view to achieving the effect of educating the whole community and going deep into people's hearts; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
      
 Reply:

 President,
      
     The Police have all along been adopting a multi-pronged approach, through enhanced law enforcement measures, publicity and education, multi-agency co-operation, intelligence analysis, cross-boundary collaboration as well as joint efforts with relevant policy bureaux and departments, to combat all types of frauds and to enhance public awareness in full force. In consultation with the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, the Education Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department, the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), the reply to the Member's question is as follows:
      
(1) The OFCA has made dedicated efforts to assist the Police in their law enforcement operations to combat fraudulent messages. In this connection, the OFCA, the Police and major telecommunications service providers jointly set up a working group in early September last year. The working group is committed to combating deception cases by devising and introducing different measures from the perspective of telecommunications services. A series of measures are implemented to tackle the problem at source, including:
      
(i) the telecommunications service providers will intercept phone numbers and websites suspected to be involved in deception cases based on the deception records provided by the Police;
      
(ii) the OFCA has formulated the Code of Practice on Management of Scam Calls by Telecommunications Service Providers, which requires the telecommunications service providers to monitor calls originated from their networks and systems, and to suspend the telephone services of phone numbers with calling modes suspected to be involved in deception;
      
(iii) the Real-name Registration Programme for SIM Cards (RNR Programme) has been officially implemented, which enables the law enforcement agencies to detect crimes involving the use of SIM cards, including telephone deception cases. The OFCA has been collaborating with telecommunications service providers to ensure that the RNR Programme is effectively implemented. Among others, telecommunications service providers are requested to conduct sample checks from time to time and follow up on the verification of suspicious pre-paid SIM cards, with a view to assisting the Police in combating telephone deception.
      
     As regards incoming calls from outside Hong Kong as mentioned in the question, telecommunications service providers have, targeting non-local fraudulent calls, intercepted more than 1.4 million suspicious incoming calls with prefix "+852" since end March this year. In addition, starting from May 1 this year, telecommunications service providers have started to send voice alerts or text alerts for non-local incoming calls prefixed with "+852" to alert mobile service users that the calls are from outside Hong Kong, so that receivers can stay vigilant against those non-local calls with calling numbers masqueraded as Hong Kong phone numbers. Up to September, telecommunications service providers have sent about 18 million voice or text alerts.
      
     It is suggested in the question that consideration can be given to adding a sign of, for example, "*" or sending out a voice alert for incoming calls involving government services and public organisations. There are technical constraints in implementing the suggestion concerned, as calling number displays do not support special characters other than numbers. Moreover, many fraudulent calls are now containing bogus voice messages that claim to be government departments and public organisations.  If voice alerts are put in place, they may be exploited by lawbreakers to mislead the public.
      
     The Government will continue to closely monitor the latest trend of deception cases and keep the public informed of the latest modus operandi of the fraudsters. Regarding fraudulent calls claiming to be government departments, the Police have been enhancing public awareness by publicising in a high profile manner that government departments will not ask the call recipients to provide personal or bank information.
      
     All in all, the most effective anti-deception means for members of the public is to remind themselves, their families and their friends to stay highly vigilant at all times. If members of the public receive calls from strangers, regardless of the displayed number, they should stay highly vigilant and should not disclose personal information or transfer money to unknown callers to avoid suffering from losses. If in doubt, they should report the cases to the Police immediately. They can utilise free call-filtering applications available in the market to screen suspicious calls and call-filtering services provided by telecommunications service providers to protect themselves.
      
(2) Various disciplined services departments will take account of law enforcement needs and regularly provide serving and newly recruited officers with professional training on technology crime investigation, digital forensics and cyber intelligence gathering, including professional certificate courses, regular training courses and internal training materials. In addition, the OGCIO and the information technology (IT) sector will also jointly organise thematic seminars, technical workshops, information security certificate courses, cybersecurity incident response training and cybersecurity summits on a regular basis to enhance the IT security skills and knowledge of IT officers. For details, please refer to the Annex.
      
     As regards the post-secondary education sector, under the principle of institutional autonomy, institutions have the flexibility to develop programmes that meet market needs and adjust the contents and intake places of relevant programmes. In recent years, tertiary institutions have developed different programmes on IT security such as Bachelor of Science in Information Security offered by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Higher Diploma in Information Security offered by the HKU SPACE Community College, with a view to nurturing local talents on information security.
      
(3) The Police have been adopting a multi-channel, extensive publicity strategy to heighten public awareness against various kinds of deception cases as well as relevant risks relating to computer, cybersecurity, Internet and social media. From time to time, anti-deception messages are updated and publicity programmes on various fronts are devised in response to the latest crime trends. As for multimedia, in view of the wide coverage of television publicity, the Police and TVB have jointly produced a series of ten episodes titled "All-round CyberDefence" in April this year to explore various issues on cybersecurity and technology crime. The latest techniques of different cyber pitfalls are unveiled with real examples and viewed from the perspectives of experts. The Police have also been working with some of the cinemas to arrange for the screening of an anti-fraud publicity video before the showing of movies, so as to remind the public to stay vigilant against deception.
      
     The Police have also launched different types of thematic anti-deception publicity campaigns, such as the "All-round CyberDefence" campaign and the "Anti-money Laundering Month" campaign to promote digital literacy and awareness of anti-deception among the general public. In February this year, the Police launched a mobile application "Scameter+" as a one-stop scam and pitfall search engine, held a large-scale seminar "How to Strengthen Students' Resilience Against Cyber Pitfalls" in collaboration with the Education Bureau for more than 290 principals and teachers across the territory, and launched an account on Xiaohongshu to further expand the coverage of anti-deception publicity work. The Police also regularly launch large-scale thematic anti-deception campaigns under the "Anti-Deception Season" and "Anti-Deception Month". For example, in the third quarter of this year, the Police launched a publicity campaign titled "Don't Click On Embedded Links in SMS messages without Hesitation" targeting phishing scams, invited renowned local musician Harry Ng to write a promotional song "There's no free lunch", and launched a simulation game on online deception. In December this year, the Police will organise a large-scale Winter Market Anti-Scam Charity Run in the West Kowloon Cultural District to promote anti-deception message across the territory.

The following press release is issued on behalf of the Independent Commission Against Corruption:

     The ICAC will kick start its annual opinion survey next Monday (November 27) to gauge public attitudes towards a probity society and their understanding of Hong Kong’s anti-graft work.

     About 1 700 Hong Kong residents, aged between 15 and 74, will be selected randomly for interviews to be conducted by an independent and professional research agency appointed by the ICAC.

     "It is important for the ICAC to suitably adjust its work strategy to align with social development and public expectations. The ICAC Annual Survey enables the Commission to more accurately gauge public perception of the city's probity situation, devise appropriate anti-corruption policies and maximise the impact of our anti-corruption efforts," said an ICAC spokesman.

     Selected households will receive a notification letter from the ICAC. Interviewers of the research agency will visit the households between 10am and 9.45pm during the survey period for a simple face-to-face interview lasting about 10-15 minutes. Selected households are welcome to call the research company or the ICAC to schedule the interview at their preferred time.

     All interviewers will wear a uniform, bear an authorisation letter issued by the ICAC and a staff identity card of the research agency for identification purposes. All data collected from the survey will only be used for aggregate analysis, and completed questionnaires will be destroyed after completion of the survey.

     Details of the survey are now available on the ICAC corporate website (www.icac.org.hk). For enquiries, members of the public may call the ICAC survey enquiry hotline 2826 3267 between 10am and 10pm from Monday to Sunday during the survey period.

     Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Health, Dr Libby Lee, in the Legislative Council today (November 22):
 
Question:
 
     Regarding the healthcare services in Kowloon East (KE), will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) whether it knows the daily attendance and average utilisation rate of each of the general outpatient clinics (GOPCs) in the Kwun Tong district in the past three months; whether the Government has plans to increase the provision of GOPC services in the Kwun Tong district in the coming two years; if so, of the details;
 
(2) whether it knows the age distribution of GOPC patients mentioned in ‍(1), and set out a breakdown by the following age groups: aged below 18, 18 to below 35, 35 to below 45, 45 to below 65, and 65 or above;
 
(3) whether it knows the channels through which GOPC patients mentioned in (1) booked their consultation appointments, and set out a breakdown by the following four channels and their respective proportions: (i) bookings made by chronic disease patients with clinics for regular follow-up consultations, (ii) telephone bookings, (iii) bookings made through the Hospital Authority (HA) mobile application "HA Go" and (iv) bookings made through other channels; as it is learnt that follow-up consultations are required for more and more chronic disease patients, how HA copes with the need of patients with sudden illnesses or episodic diseases, and how consultation quotas can be evenly distributed among patients from different booking channels;
 
(4) whether it knows the specific details of the United Christian Hospital (UCH) expansion project in the coming three years (including the specific completion dates for various item of works and the enhanced services to be provided by the accident and emergency (A&E) department and various specialist outpatient departments (SOPDs) of the expanded UCH); whether UCH has plans for the next phase of expansion; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(5) as it is estimated that the future population of KE will reach at least 1.3 million, whether the Government has further hospital construction plans to cope with population growth in KE, or whether measures are in place to encourage private organisations or private hospitals to provide healthcare services in KE; if so, of the details;
 
(6) whether it knows the average and median waiting times of patients at the A&E department of UCH in the past three months, as well as the average waiting time for stable new case bookings at SOPDs; whether it has assessed if the waiting time for the relevant services will be shortened upon completion of UCH's expansion; if it has, of the targets; and
 
(7) given that Prince of Wales Hospital is now the teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, whether it knows if HA will consider launching a pilot scheme through collaboration between hospitals in the Kowloon East Cluster and the faculties of medicine of local universities, such that hospitals in the cluster will have priority in receiving medical interns, with a view to alleviating the problem of manpower shortage?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     In consultation with the Hospital Authority (HA), the reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Tang Ka-piu is as follows:
 
     The HA considers a series of factors in planning and developing public healthcare services, including the increase in service demand due to population growth and demographic changes, healthcare needs brought about by the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, and factors such as technological development, manpower supply and delivery models of relevant services, and formulates plans in line with service arrangements of various clusters.
 
(1) to (3) The General Out-patient Clinics (GOPCs) of the HA are mainly positioned to serve low-income persons and socially disadvantaged groups in priority, as well as chronic disease patients with stable conditions and those with relatively mild episodic illnesses. At present, in the Kowloon East Cluster (KEC) of the HA, there are five GOPCs in the Kwun Tong district providing a total of over 450 000 consultation quota in 2022-23 and accounting for about 10 per cent of the city-wide GOPC quota. Service utilisation of the clinics and age distribution of patients are shown in Annex 1.
 
     The GOPCs of the Kwun Tong district reserve about 50 per cent of the daily consultation quota of weekdays for chronic disease patients and those with episodic illnesses respectively. To enhance the consultation capacity of the existing clinics in the district, the HA completed improvement works and refurbishment of facilities for the Kowloon Bay Health Centre GOPC and the Ngau Tau Kok Jockey Club GOPC in January 2018 and August 2023 respectively. Furthermore, the Government has secured funding approval from the Legislative Council (LegCo) in March this year for the construction of a GOPC at Ko Chiu Road in Yau Tong, of which the works is expected to be completed in 2028. The Government has also reserved a site for clinic use at On Sau Road in Kwun Tong as part of the Hospital Development Plan (HDP). The Government will solicit support from the Kwun Tong District Council and the LegCo on the project in due course.
 
     Regarding booking of appointments, the clinics will arrange next appointment for chronic disease patients who require follow-up after each consultation based on their clinical needs, thus they do not need to make separate booking. For those with episodic illnesses, consultation time slots in the next 24 hours are available for booking through the GOPC Telephone Appointment System (Telephone System) or the “Book GOPC” function in “HA Go”, the HA's one-stop mobile application. With regard to the Kwun Tong district, for the past year (October 2022 – September 2023), about 85 per cent of patients with episodic illnesses made booking through the Telephone System and about 15 per cent through the mobile application.
 
     In view of the rapidly ageing population, rising prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing healthcare service demand, the public healthcare system, as the cornerstone and safety net of Hong Kong's healthcare system, has to concentrate resources and accord priority to accident and emergency (A&E) and specialist services, as well as secondary and tertiary healthcare which require complicated technologies. The Government has put forward a proposal for reform in the Primary Healthcare Blueprint (Blueprint), focusing on strengthening primary healthcare services and alleviating the pressure on the public healthcare system especially the specialist out-patient clinics (SOPCs) under public hospitals. The Government will continue to advocate the concept of "Family Doctor for All" and have launched the Chronic Disease Co-Care Pilot Scheme in mid-November. Through the establishment of a family doctor system and screening, people with more economic capability can be diverted to the private healthcare sector for health management through a co-payment model. At the same time, the Government also has to consider concentrating the limited resources of public general out-patient services by giving priority to those who may not be able to afford private healthcare services. The Government will gradually reposition the GOPCs to focus on taking care of low-income persons and the socially disadvantaged groups.
 
(4) to (6) At present, there are three hospitals in the KEC, including United Christian Hospital (UCH), Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH), providing comprehensive clinical and healthcare services to residents in the area.
 
     Among them, both UCH and TKOH provide A&E services for those with critical conditions or severe injuries as well as victims of disasters. To ensure that citizens with urgent needs can receive timely services, A&E departments implement a patient triage system. Patients are classified into five categories, namely critical, emergency, urgent, semi-urgent or non-urgent, according to their clinical conditions, and receive treatment in accordance with the priority category. The HA's service target specifies that critical patients will receive immediate treatment, and most emergency (95 per cent) and urgent (90 per cent) patients will be treated within 15 or 30 minutes. Relevant service statistics of the A&E department of the UCH are shown in Annex 2.
 
     For the SOPCs, specialist treatment services are provided for patients referred from the GOPCs, private practitioners or family doctors. Such services are planned and provided on a cluster basis. The SOPCs have all along been implementing a triage system for newly referred cases to ensure that patients with urgent conditions and needs can be treated with priority. The newly referred cases are usually first screened by a nurse, followed by review by a specialist doctor of the relevant specialty for classification into Priority 1 (Urgent), Priority 2 (Semi-urgent) or Routine (Stable) categories. The HA targets to maintain the median waiting time for Priority 1 and Priority 2 cases within two and eight weeks respectively. Relevant statistics of the KEC's SOPCs are shown in Annex 3.
 
     The HA will undertake multiple hospital works projects under the HDPs to increase the number of beds and other healthcare facilities in the three hospitals of the KEC to cope with the rising service demand.
 
     Under the first 10-year HDP, the superstructure and associated works of the UCH expansion project commenced in September 2020. Upon completion of the UCH expansion project, there will be adequate space and upgraded facilities for supporting A&E and specialist out-patient services to meet the increasing service demand and help shorten patients' waiting time. Other ambulatory care services will also be enhanced to provide comprehensive integrated healthcare services for the community. The new Oncology Centre will provide radiotherapy, chemotherapy and psycho-social care for cancer patients in the KEC. In addition, the expansion project will also enhance convalescent and rehabilitation services in the KEC. It is anticipated that UCH will provide about 2 100 in-patient and day beds (i.e. 560 additional beds including eight haemodialysis day beds) upon completion of the expansion project. The HA also plans to add five operating theatres after completion of the project. The existing diagnostic and treatment facilities, including operating rooms, the coronary care unit, intensive care unit, radiology department, A&E department and endoscopy centre, will also be improved or expanded. 
 
     Moreover, the New Acute Hospital (NAH) being constructed in the Kai Tak Development Area under the first 10-year HDP will also provide 2 400 in-patient beds as well as other healthcare and support facilities. When planning for the NAH, the HA has already taken into consideration the projected service demand of the Kowloon Central Cluster as well as the neighbouring Kwun Tong district in the KEC. 
 
     The HA is reviewing the latest population projection, the Government's development plans and the corresponding adjustments in service demand for formulating the second 10-year HDP and revising its project list. Based on the latest projection of service demand, the HA will keep in view the healthcare service utilisation and demand in the KEC with a view to providing the most appropriate healthcare service model and facilities for meeting public needs in the long run.

     In addition, the Government has reserved sites in different districts for the long-term development of primary healthcare services. In the long run, the Government will study how to plan and develop healthcare facilities more effectively, strengthen co-ordination of development and re-development of government buildings and healthcare premises at community level based on recommendations of the Blueprint. The Government will also consider various measures to promote the inclusion of private or non-government organsiation (NGO) healthcare service providers in the district-based community health system, including examining the feasibility of providing healthcare service venues for individual private healthcare service providers or NGOs, as well as devising a policy for land premium concession for NGOs delivering primary healthcare services.
 
(7) The HA is committed to collaborating with the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) and the medical schools of the two local universities in promoting training opportunities and quality of medical interns. In general, medical graduates of the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as non-locally trained doctors (NLTDs, having passed the Licensing Examination administered by the MCHK) have to work as interns and undergo an assessment period of normally 12 months in recognised hospitals (including UCH) before applying for registration as doctors.
 
     As medical interns are under training, they are not included under the medical manpower of the HA. The HA takes great concern in the manpower situation of public hospitals and has been actively launching various measures to retain and attract talents, including enhancement of recruitment of full-time and part-time doctors, implementation of the Extending Employment Beyond Retirement policy, introduction of the Home Loan Interest Subsidy Scheme and establishment of the HA Academy, etc. Meanwhile, more training and promotion opportunities are provided for existing staff to further retain manpower for meeting the rising service demand in the future while reducing attrition. The HA also makes use of different channels to actively recruit NLTDs, including promotion events in various countries and regions, recruiting more eligible NLTDs through special registration or limited registration to join the public healthcare system of Hong Kong to meet the growing service demand.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) jointly announced today (November 22) the exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen the ongoing partnership on fintech between the two authorities, particularly in the areas of cross-border trade-related data exchange and business collaboration, with a view to further promoting inclusive and innovative financial services leveraging fintech and data in both markets.
      
     The MoU was signed by the Executive Director (Financial Infrastructure) of the HKMA, Mr Colin Pou, and the Senior Executive Director – Authorisation & Fintech of the FSRA, Mr Kwok Wai-lum. The exchange of the MoU is an important milestone in cementing and strengthening the collaboration between the two authorities, building upon the solid foundation laid by the signing of a Co-operation Agreement in 2018.
      
     Under the MoU, the two authorities will contemplate joint Proof-of-Concept projects to connect the HKMA's Commercial Data Interchange (Note 1) to the ADGM's SME Financing Platform (Note 2). The two authorities will also join forces to explore use cases for cross-border data exchange with user consent to address potential pain points in cross-border banking services such as small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) account opening and financing to facilitate cross-border trading.  
      
     Mr Pou said, "We are delighted to deepen our collaboration and knowledge exchange with the FSRA through this MoU. This underscores our shared commitment to advancing fintech development and unleashing the potential of data. Both authorities recognise the importance of creating next-generation data platforms and enabling cross-border data exchange in the age of digitalisation. We trust that our collective effort will foster financial innovation and empower SMEs in both jurisdictions with enhanced financing opportunities."
      
     Mr Kwok said, "This MoU further strengthens the strategic partnership between the FSRA and HKMA to foster cross-border trade and business leveraging technological innovation. We are excited by the tremendous possibilities that the digital bridge between our platforms can bring, in connecting the marketplace of the UAE and the Greater Bay Area through the respective gateways of ADGM and Hong Kong. We look forward to working closely with the HKMA in building a vibrant ecosystem for SMEs in both jurisdictions."

Note 1: Launched in October 2022 by the HKMA, Commercial Data Interchange is a consent-based financial data infrastructure that aims to facilitate enterprises, in particular SMEs, to share their commercial data at both public and private data sources with banks in Hong Kong, thereby enhancing their access to financial services. 

Note 2: Developed by the ADGM, the purpose of the SME Financing Platform is to connect SMEs and lenders through a seamless digital platform with features that have been designed to financially empower and support the growth of the SME ecosystem across the United Arab Emirates (UAE).