People

More than 300 ethnically diverse people aged 18 to 30 gathered on Saturday at a youth leadership Summit, which centred on prospective opportunities and challenges for ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. The Ethnically Diverse Youth Leadership Summit 2026 was the second edition of the summit held by the Zubin Foundation in Ngau Tau Kok. The summit aimed to focus more on job opportunities, although much of the discussion about diverse ethnic communities centers on the negative barriers and challenges, said Shalini Mahtani, Founder and CEO of the foundation. “We're not downplaying them, but we also wanted to focus on something like your aspirations, leadership, and future in Hong Kong,” she said. Delivering his opening remarks as a guest speaker, Chris Sun Yuk-han, Secretary for the Labor and Welfare Bureau, said that as a policymaker, he is keen to listen to the group’s passion and concern. Sun encouraged young minorities to overcome difficulties in their work and said it was a great opportunity for him to hear the participants' thoughts. The summit revolves around the challenges and opportunities of the ethnically diverse community and features a debate titled “Are you optimistic or pessimistic about your future in Hong Kong?” Arvind Singh Dhaliwal, 23, an engineering student at the University of Hong Kong, is of Indian descent and grew up in Hong Kong. He speaks some everyday Cantonese and English, and represented the opposition side in debate. “A lot of engineering companies prefer people who can speak Mandarin, since many firms and departments are moving head to the mainland,” said Dhaliwal. “For Cantonese, I can speak enough to get by, but it is too stressful for me to speak Mandarin.” Subha Abedin, 21, a member of the Foundation for Youth Development—a youth-led non-governmental organisation—who graduated this year, said “Language can be …

Ah Moon, 55, who does not want to reveal her real name, initially had no intention of making decisions about legal safeguards for herself and her same-sex partner related to end-of-life matters. She began to consider these issues more consciously during a hospital stay in 2002, while she was in a relationship with her ex-girlfriend. “I was afraid of what would happen if I never woke up again, so I drafted a few pages of plans on blank paper myself after discharge,” she said. Hong Kong does not legally recognise same-sex marriages. Ah Moon said because her family does not care about her relationship, she worries that her wishes after death will not be honoured.  In September, the Legislative Council rejected a bill to legally recognise same-sex partnerships by a large majority, leaving same-sex couples to rely on fragmented legal documents and personal requests to protect end-of-life decisions such as inheritance, medical choices and funeral arrangements. Rufina Ng, a senior associate at Hastings & Co, a law firm that offers free legal consultation for the LGBTQ community, said same-sex partners are highly recommended to plan in advance for end-of-life, though they still face limitations. Ng said the most common end-of-life legal challenges faced by same-sex couples in Hong Kong are claiming the body and inheritance, particularly if there is no will or there is conflict between the surviving partner and the deceased’s family. “Same-sex couples lack the legal status of spouses or family members under Hong Kong’s legal framework. When one partner dies without a will, the surviving one currently has no inheritance rights and other relatives may also oppose their handling of funeral arrangements,” she said. Hong Kong’s current inheritance laws only recognise spouses and a few other relatives. Unmarried partners, whether same-sex or not, receive no legal protection. …

Hong Kong government will provide HK$50 million to invite public organizations to hold AI training courses for residents. The government will also provide HK$2 billion to improve AI education in primary, secondary schools, and universities, said Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in the budget plan on Wednesday. “While AI is advancing at a rapid pace, both students and teachers lack a basic understanding of it and the ability to apply it in practice; fewer than one in ten people have a grasp of it,” said Simon Wang, 48, a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University computer assisted language learning department. According to data research by Google, of the 4,446 US employees surveyed, only 40% of them have adopted AI in their work, and 5% are AI fluent. In the budget, Chan said public universities will launch 27 undergraduate courses that relate to AI. “HKBU has launched AI and Data Science as a new second major, and the computer science major includes Applied AI as a core course. Computer Science Department holds a supportive attitude to the application of AI in university education,” said Byron Choi Koon Kau, a professor from the Hong Kong Baptist University Computer Science Department. “Most professors still have a low acceptance of AI. Some assignments that could have been completed better with AI are not allowed to be used. It is necessary to fully implement AI training and education,” Wang said. In response to the budget plan for AI training, the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers said, "We suggest that the government provide more systematic teachers’ AI training programs and add special subsidies to support all teachers in Hong Kong to take AI courses." According to Wen Hui Net, at the beginning of this month, the Education Bureau provided over 70,000 systematic AI training opportunities …