The Advent of Smart Customs in the Post-COVID-19 era

The Hong Kong Customs has all along been taking up the dual roles of “Gate Keeper” and “Trade Facilitator” which are more significant during the pandemic. Since 2019, the Hong Kong Customs has proactively formulated the “Smart Customs Blueprint” to further enhance the Hong Kong Customs’ functions through the application of innovative technology, which is instrumental to meeting challenges in the post-COVID-19 era.

Specifically, apart from the traditional role as “law enforcer and service provider”, the Hong Kong Customs will play a more diversified role by strengthening its role as “trade facilitator” and becoming an “economic development promoter”. To achieve this, Customs has built up the Smart Customs Blueprint on a four-key-pillar concept, namely the “Smart Boundary Management”, “Smart Investigation and Case Management”, “Smart Trade Facilitation” and “Smart Business Development”.

Looking ahead, as guided by the “Smart Customs Blueprint”, the Hong Kong Customs will continue to apply advanced and innovative technologies to different areas so as to help further bolster Hong Kong’s status as a “safe city”, “business city” and “investment city” in the post-COVID-19 era.

Building Resilience in the Logistics industry

Plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, market dynamics and changes in government policy, it causes massive headaches across the maritime shipping world. Inefficiencies in the maritime sector result in delays and higher costs, with an adverse impact on the entire economy and wellbeing of populations. Volatility and uncertainty are now the new normal. Fortunes are now reliant on the resilience of the global supply chain.

Ports, serving as critical linkages between global economies, need to be agile and flexible to cope with unexpected challenges. Digitalizing the sector have the proven potential to improve supply chain resilience, enhance efficiency and bring wide-ranging economic benefits. The interdependency of the global maritime trading system means only a coordinated effort from across the whole supply chain can produce impactful change. Collaboration and innovation among all stakeholders are critical to build resilience to navigate uncharted waters for sustainable growth.

Innovation and Technology Development in Hong Kong Satellite Manufacturing

Driven by big data, artificial intelligence, information and communication technology (ICT), integrated circuit and other industries, aerospace technology has been rapidly promoted, facilitated and popularized. The production and data application of commercial satellites have gradually become a megatrend of future development. In-orbit satellite platforms will become an important source of data for the information-led society and the digital economy.

Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group is planning to build a satellite smart manufacturing industry value chain in Hong Kong, which can effectively support the development of the satellite industry. This value chain has the function of supporting the whole process of preparation, assembly, integration and testing in the satellite production process. With complete production capabilities, it can simulate the zero-gravity environment and the vibration impact environment of rocket launch mechanics, and can be used as a regular production base for commercial satellites.

By focusing on the core technical requirements of the satellite industry, expanding satellite application capabilities and building a shared aerospace information innovation platform, the commercial satellite value chain will help to promote and facilitate the satellite industry and smart city application in Hong Kong and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as Hong Kong’s re-industrialization assisted by the development of precision manufacturing.

Design concept of the first Chinese Medicine Hospital in Hong Kong

The Chinese Medicine Hospital (CMH) in Hong Kong is now in its hospital commissioning stage planned for phased service commencement in the second quarter of 2025. The CMH will serve as a flagship Chinese medicine institution leading the development of Chinese medicine (including Chinese medicines) in Hong Kong. The CMH will also act as a change driver promoting service development, education and training, innovation and research.

The planning and development of the CMH, being Hong Kong’s first of its kind, must be able to meet the needs in fulfilling the given missions and functions. Furthermore, the design of the CMH must be capable of rising to the challenges ahead as a result of the ever developing healthcare environment, service model, knowledge, skills and technologies. The key planning concepts so adopted include: (1) Evolving development; (2) People first; (3) Upholding CM tradition and culture; (4) Intelligent hospital; (5) Green and environmental friendly; and (6) Visibility.

VR CAVE Technology for BIM Design

With Virtual Reality (VR), users can be immersed into a synthetic world and experience lifelike virtual environment. Unlike typical HMD (Head Mounted Display) we normally see, CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) is a VR system with large displays that all users physically share the same space, time and virtual world. Instead of putting on heavy and bulky HMD, CAVE users only need to wear lightweight 3D glasses to experience the VR world. On the other hand, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is gaining popularity as an essential tool throughout a building lifecycle for purposes of visualization, engineering analysis, conflict analysis, budgeting, and scheduling of the construction sequence. The VR CAVE technology has the power to transform the BIM review process, by allowing multiple users to directly experience the construction design and communicate effectively in the virtual building model at 1:1 scale. Being able to get into the 3D design, the CAVE encourages more effective verbal and non-verbal communication among the participants, and hence the overall BIM design process can be greatly enhanced. In this talk, I will show some of our latest development and share the experience we have gained.