The Education Bureau (EDB) held the Life Planning Education Conference today (November 10), enabling about 1 000 local and Mainland education practitioners and representatives of partner organisations of the Business-School Partnership Programme (BSPP) to take the opportunity to exchange their experiences and enhance their professional capacity in life planning education.

     The conference, with the theme of "Equipping Young Talents – Welcoming Future Opportunities", was held in person and online in parallel. It is aimed at fostering joint efforts of different sectors to enhance life planning education so as to help students develop their talent, move towards personal goals and ideals, and seize the immense opportunities brought by the overall development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the country as a whole.

     Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said that the Government has all along been attaching great importance to the development of young people. It actively supports the overall development direction of Hong Kong and grasps the immense opportunities brought by the development of the country and nurtures the generation of young people from the perspective of a bigger picture.

     Dr Choi said that in order to deepen students' understanding on the GBA, the EDB will launch the "Greater Bay Area Career Exploration Tours" starting from this school year. The tours enable senior secondary students to visit the GBA and understand the needs for talents of various industries, the development of Hong Kong enterprises in the GBA and the collaboration among enterprises in the two places. 

     Moreover, in the 2022/23 school year, the EDB launched the BSPP 2.0 with more business partners, covering a larger and wider range of industries including emerging industries. The EDB also collaborated with business sectors, government departments and community organisations to provide a wide range of career exploration activities to students. As well, under the Holiday Work Experience Programmes, the business partners organised more than 370 activities, offering about 1 500 work experience places.  
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     The Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Job Market Publishing Limited of the Sing Tao News Corporation, Dr Fanny Chan; Assistant Commandant of the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy of the Fire Services Department Mr Kwok Chi-kwan, who assisted in the search and rescue work in the quake-stricken areas in Türkiye; Hong Kong wushu athlete Leung Cheuk-hei; the Founding Chairman of The Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Mr Edward Choi; and the President of the International Unmanned Aircraft Systems Association, Mr Rickson Chow, were invited as the keynote speakers of the conference.  A number of sharing sessions were also held in the afternoon for participants to exchange their experiences and share views.
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     Education practitioners exchanged their views on the trends of the working world as well as the qualities and skills required for entering into emerging industries with professionals and scholars. Through the activities, the practitioners enhanced their professional capacity and enabled them to better assist students in realising their aspiration on future studies and careers, and planning for the future.

     The EDB has all along been attaching great importance to the nurturing of young people. Over the years, the EDB has been committed to promoting life planning education, assisting students in identifying their interests, abilities and orientations, as well as equipping them with relevant information on workplaces to make better preparation for further studies and career pursuits. For further information on life planning education, please visit the EDB's Life Planning Information website (lifeplanning.edb.gov.hk/en/index.html) and the BSPP website (careerguidance.edb.hkedcity.net). 

    

     â€‹The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 10) that in view of a notification from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Rural Municipality of Fertile Valley No. 285 of Saskatchewan Province and Arthabaska Regional County of Quebec Province in Canada, the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the above-mentioned areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.

     A CFS spokesman said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 20 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Canada in the first nine months of this year.

     "The CFS has contacted the Canadian authority over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the WOAH and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.

     â€‹The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 10) that fruit and seaweed products from regulated Japanese prefectures were suspected to be in breach of the relevant Food Safety Order when the CFS inspected food imported from Japan. The products concerned have been marked and sealed by the CFS and have not entered the market. The CFS is following up on the cases.

     A spokesman for the CFS said, "During inspections of the food labels of the concerned consignments of food imported from Japan, the CFS respectively found five boxes of strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture which were not accompanied with a radiation certificate and an exporter certificate, as well as a seaweed product suspected to have been manufactured in Chiba Prefecture after the Order was issued. The importers concerned are thus suspected of breaching the relevant Order."

     According to the Order, all aquatic products originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, are prohibited from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong if they are harvested, manufactured, processed or packed on or after August 24, 2023, including all live, chilled, frozen, dried or otherwise preserved aquatic products, sea salt, and unprocessed or processed seaweed. In addition, all vegetables, fruits, milk, milk beverages and dried milk originating from Fukushima are banned from being imported into Hong Kong, while such foods originating from Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma prefectures are allowed to be imported on the condition that they are accompanied with a radiation certificate and an exporter certificate issued by the Japanese authority certifying that the radiation levels do not exceed the guideline levels and are fit for human consumption.

     The CFS will continue to follow up on the incidents and take appropriate action, including informing the Japanese authorities concerned of the incidents. Prosecutions will be instituted against the importers concerned should there be sufficient evidence. The investigation is ongoing.

     The Hong Kong Science Museum launched "The Shaw Prize 2023 Exhibition" today (November 10) to introduce the Shaw Laureates this year and their outstanding contributions. The exhibition also features basic science knowledge in the laureates' respective academic fields to enable visitors to understand more about the major efforts and achievements in scientific research by top-notch scientists worldwide.
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     Established in 2002, the Shaw Prize consists of three annual awards, namely the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. It is an international award to honour individuals who are currently active in their respective fields, have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, have recently achieved distinguished and significant advances, or have achieved excellence in other domains.

     The three Shaw Prize laureates in Astronomy 2023 are Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Professor Matthew Bailes; Professor and Interim Chair of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean for Research at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, the United States, Professor Duncan Lorimer; and Eberly Family Distinguished Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology at West Virginia University, the United States, Professor Maura McLaughlin. They discovered the first fast radio burst and deduced many of the properties of its source, in particular its extreme distance, small size, and enormous energy. They also estimated the cosmic rate of production of fast radio bursts and highlighted their potential as cosmological probes.

     The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2023 is awarded in equal shares to Director of Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and President of the Max Planck Society, Germany, Professor Patrick Cramer, and Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, the United States, Professor Eva Nogales. They pioneered structural biology that enabled visualisation, at the level of individual atoms, of the protein machines responsible for gene transcription, one of life's fundamental processes. They revealed the mechanism underlying each step in gene transcription, how proper gene transcription promotes health, and how dysregulation causes disease.

     The two Shaw Prize laureates in Mathematical Sciences 2023 are Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, the United States, Professor Vladimir Drinfeld, and Chair Professor at Tsinghua University, Professor Yau Shing-Tung, for their contributions related to mathematical physics, to arithmetic geometry, to differential geometry and to Kähler geometry. Professor Vladimir Drinfeld launched the geometric Langlands program while Professor Yau worked on mathematical problems arising from general relativity and string theory.

     The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Shaw Prize Foundation, and is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Education Bureau and the Hong Kong Education City.

     The exhibition will run from today until January 10, 2024, at the main lobby of the Hong Kong Science Museum (2 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon). For exhibition details, please visit hk.science.museum/en/web/scm/exhibition/shawprize.html, or call 2732 3232 for enquiries.

      

     The Director of Water Supplies, Mr Tony Yau, attended the 5th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Water Forum in Dongguan from November 8 to 10. Mr Yau spoke at the CEO Summit, took part in a dialogue session with experts and academicians and visited the Songshanhu Water Treatment Plant located in the Songshan Lake High-Tech Zone of Dongguan, concluding a fruitful trip.

     The three-day forum, with the theme "Smart Waterworks for a Green Bay Area", was co-organised by 11 water supply organisations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and hosted by the Dongguan Water Group Company Limited. The Vice Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People's Government, Mr Chen Qingsong; the Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the Dongguan Municipal People's Government, Ms Yu Lijun; the Director of the Dongguan Water Authority, Mr Tao Jin; the Drainage Services Department and over 400 representatives from 11 water supply organisations attended the forum and exchanged views on subjects including water supply, drainage, sewage, green low carbon and smart waterworks, etc.

     During the forum, Mr Yau mentioned that Dongjiang (DJ) water has been supporting Hong Kong's continuous social and economic development, contributing to Hong Kong's achievement as the international financial centre it is today. DJ water accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of total fresh water consumption in Hong Kong, and its uninterrupted supply for nearly 60 years has solved Hong Kong's water shortage problem in the long run, making the city a better place for some 7 million Hong Kong people to live and work. Following the rapid development in the GBA in recent years, there is a growing demand for water supply. Hong Kong together with other cities in the GBA will continue to closely co-operate to better utilise water resources in the GBA for the well-being of the people. This annual GBA water forum is a beneficial platform for experts to exchange views and promote collaboration.

     Mr Yau visited the Songshanhu Water Treatment Plant, which is located in the Songshan Lake High-Tech Zone of Dongguan and adjacent to the Songmushan Reservoir. The plant, having dual water sources from Dongjiang and Xijiang, ultilises an all-in-one treatment process that includes conventional treatment, ozone-activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane processes. The plant is the largest all-in-one process water treatment plant in Asia that was completed in a single phase.

     Mr Yau spoke to the top management of water supply organisations in the GBA at the CEO Summit during the forum, sharing information on the transformation of the water supply through resilience, innovation and sustainability in Hong Kong. Under the Total Water Management Strategy, the Water Supplies Department (WSD) strives to build resilience in the fresh water supply with diversified water resources. In particular, the first stage of the Tseung Kwan O desalination plant currently under construction will commence operation next month. Moreover, to promote the use of recycled water (including reclaimed water and treated grey water) as alternative water resources for non-potable uses, the WSD is proactively carrying out the related infrastructure works. Mr Yau also talked about the challenges of climate change and the development of renewable energy technologies, etc. He also took part in a dialogue session and exchanged views with experts and academicians on subjects relating to water matters.

     Mr Yau returned to Hong Kong this afternoon (November 10).