In the Media

Donald Trump is set to return as President of the United States, ushering in the era of Trump 2.0. His new agenda focuses on tax cuts, reducing trade deficits, and limiting immigration. Trump aims to maintain low tax rates and has proposed a revamped tax structure in his "2025 Plan," which could worsen income inequality. Dr. Luk noted that while Trump's tax policies may stimulate the economy, they could also increase national debt and impact social welfare spending, thereby challenging government operations.

The Hong Kong government is expecting a deficit of nearly HK$100 billion for the current year, significantly higher than the initial estimate of HK$48.1 billion made last February. The IMF has highlighted the necessity for Hong Kong to enhance its tax revenue to address increasing spending pressures linked to an ageing population. Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of HKU Business School and Director of the Asia Global Institute, supports raising revenue either by raising tax rates or by broadening the tax base to address the issue of possible structural fiscal deficits. He highlighted a “mental trap” among government officials who believe that higher taxes would harm productivity, and he pointed out that Singapore’s implementation of a goods and services tax (GST) did not hinder productivity in the medium run. He stated, “Broadening the tax base, especially introducing the sales tax, will be a one-way street,” emphasising the need for sustainable revenue sources as government expenses grow.

In the first half of 2024, fatal industrial accidents in Hong Kong increased compared to the previous year. Many of these accidents occur in the construction and manufacturing sectors, often involving hazardous materials and falling objects. Critics argue that the pressure to meet deadlines leads companies to overlook essential safety measures, and that enhancing safety protocols could prevent most accidents.

In the digital age, traditional public services face significant challenges, including inefficiency and outdated information. Large language models (LLMs), while impressive, struggle with "hallucinations" (generating fluent but incorrect responses) and a lack of domain-specific data, making them inadequate for high-accuracy demands. To address these issues, the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework has emerged as a transformative solution, offering greater accuracy and efficiency.

Prof. Shipeng Yan and Ms. Runjia Zhang used Tencent’s “AI Corpus for good” and Ant Group’s “Blue Vest social good campaign” as case studies for top digital companies' practices in helping the elderly. They advocate for digital companies to understand the needs of the elderly through social cooperation and emphasize the importance of understanding their psychological characteristics to design products with emotional connection. At the same time, through education and social services, improve their digital literacy and awareness of fraud prevention. Let our seniors enjoy the convenience brought by technology safely and confidently!

Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of HKU Business School and Director of the Asia Global Institute, pointed out that many mainland enterprises have sought to raise funds and "go overseas" through Hong Kong in response to the mainland's economic transformation and recent growth slowdown. He emphasised, "Mainland companies adopt a dual-headquarters concept, with many R&D and manufacturing headquarters in the Greater Bay Area, and their foreign trade and fundraising operations based in Hong Kong. This is because Hong Kong's international financial market can facilitate their business expansion."

Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of HKU Business School and Director of the Asia Global Institute, commented in a recent media interview that “Hong Kong does not have a solid industrial base, which hinders technology commercialisation.” However, he stressed that creating market demand for technology is vital. Hong Kong must leverage the talent and capital resources, as well as manufacturing and technology capacity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to accelerate economies of scale in technology commercialisation. “When there are more strategic enterprises established here, they create high-end technology positions for homegrown and overseas talent in basic science and applied science, thus fostering technology commercialization,” said Prof. Tang.

Hong Kong's economy is facing a series of significant challenges, including an ongoing fiscal deficit, not being able to fully leverage the composite advantages of the Greater Bay Area, a shrinking middle class, and a drain of international talent.

港大經管學院副院長（對外事務）鄧希煒教授表示，由於地緣政治因素，加上內地本土市場過度競爭，不少當地龍頭企業希望「出海」開拓市場。他舉例，近期來港掛牌的美的集團（00300）及順豐（06936）在內地上市多年，擇此時機在港掛牌，希望作全球部署。他直言，若只在上海或北京設置總部，內地資本管制下，資金較難投資外地，「幾十億資金難以到馬來西亞或越南」；以香港作為地區總部，就可集資及投資外地市場，擴展商業版圖。