Speech by S for IT at launch ceremony of AMTD FinTech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business (English only) (with photo)
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Tim (President of the PolyU, Professor Timothy Tong), Calvin (Chairman and President of the AMTD Group, Mr Calvin Choi), Marcellus (Vice Chairman of the AMTD Group and Chairman of the AMTD Foundation, Mr Marcellus Wong), Patrick (Chairman of the PolyU Foundation, Dr Patrick Poon), Edwin (Dean of the PolyU Faculty of Business, Professor Edwin Cheng), Wilson (Director of the AMTD FinTech Centre, Professor Wilson Tong), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It is my great pleasure to join you all at the launch ceremony of the AMTD FinTech Centre of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Faculty of Business. I am most delighted to see the establishment of this FinTech Centre, which enhances Hong Kong’s leading position in innovation and technology in the specific area of FinTech.
Hong Kong is certainly a renowned international financial centre. Thanks to our robust ICT infrastructure and a vibrant ICT sector with talents from all over the world, we are best placed to become a centre of excellence for FinTech and the Government has also identified this as one of the four focus areas for pursuing innovation and technology development. The local FinTech ecosystem has grown steadily in recent years, with the Cyberport community having more than 250 FinTech companies. These companies engage in a wide range of applied research and development (R&D), including payment and remittance, robo-advisory in wealth management and insurance, cybersecurity for the financial services industry.
In this year’s Budget, the Government announced an array of measures to promote the development of innovation and technology, covering FinTech. $200 million will be allocated to Cyberport to enhance the support for start-ups, including FinTech start-ups, and promote the development of the digital technology ecosystem. Cyberport will also launch an easy landing programme to attract multinational companies, including overseas and Mainland leading FinTech companies, to set up offices or R&D units in Hong Kong. In addition, the Government has also set aside a dedicated provision of $500 million for the development of the financial services industry in the coming five years, providing necessary support for FinTech and other aspects of financial services.
In collaboration with Cyberport, the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the second FinTech Career Accelerator Scheme in January this year. It aims to nurture talents to meet the growing needs of FinTech in Hong Kong. This year’s upgraded scheme provides entrepreneurship boot camp, Shenzhen summer internship, gap year placement and fresh graduate job programme.
Local FinTech start-ups and enterprises are also benefiting from our funding support schemes including the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund and the Cyberport Macro Fund. Being Hong Kong's digital technology flagship institution, Cyberport is actively expanding its incubation programme to support FinTech development. Up to February 2018, the incubation programme has nurtured 77 FinTech start-ups. They aim to incubate a total of 150 FinTech start-ups by 2020. Furthermore, Cyberport will continue to sponsor our local university students to join FinTech training camps in overseas universities in the next few years.
Electronic and mobile payment is another example to demonstrate how FinTech can transform conventional financial services and bring convenience to customers. In September 2018, HKMA will launch the Faster Payment System. Not only will the system facilitate banks and stored value facility (SVF) operators in handling retail payments, but also funds transfers and payments by customers anytime and anywhere using mobile phone numbers or email addresses. Furthermore, HKMA is working with the industry to introduce a common QR code standard to facilitate merchants to accept payment for different SVF operators. There are indeed a lot of FinTech opportunities ahead of all of us.
In closing, let me congratulate PolyU on the establishment of the AMTD FinTech Centre to promote the development of FinTech in Hong Kong. I look forward to witnessing the Centre’s excellence in education and research, and the benefits it brings to our FinTech ecosystem.
Thank you.
Ends/Thursday, April 19, 2018
Issued at HKT 13:36
Issued at HKT 13:36
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