The Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, today (January 17) visited the food support flagship project, FOOD-CO, of the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) to gain a better understanding on how the food support collaborative platform has boosted the efficiency of food donations and distribution with the aid of information technology and data analysis.
 
     Staff of St James' Settlement, which was engaged to run FOOD-CO, gave a briefing on the operation of the platform at FOOD-CO's warehouse in Kwai Chung. Through a mobile application for matching service, FOOD-CO facilitates information sharing and matching of the demand and supply of food between donors and service operators in a convenient and time-saving manner. The platform will soon introduce an automated one-stop logistics system comprising food delivery and temporary storage services for operators and an artificial intelligence chatbot to facilitate the donation process. Mr Yang was pleased to see that the platform had enabled an effective allocation of resources and had reinforced the message of "Save and Share" with an increasing number of both donors and beneficiaries.
 
     Mr Yang also went to the Kowloon Women's Organisations Federation Lau Shun Man Fu Cheong Mutual Help Child Care Centre cum Women Services Centre and joined volunteers to distribute sweets collected via the platform to the elderly and the needy to celebrate the advent of the Lunar New Year.
 
     The SIE Fund was inaugurated in 2013 with an allocation of $500 million from the Lotteries Fund. It has funded 200 projects so far, benefitting some 178 000 people. To continue the social impact driven by the SIE Fund, the Government will seek another injection of $500 million from the Lotteries Fund shortly. The fund will be used to launch and support more programmes and projects conducive to the development of the social innovation ecosystem, with a view to further promoting social innovation and entrepreneurship.

Ends/Friday, January 17, 2020
Issued at HKT 16:09

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