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Major Speeches and Press Releases
Opening address by S for IT at Hong Kong Internet of Things Conference 2018 (English only)(with photos)
06 June 2018

Following is the opening address by the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, at the Hong Kong Internet of Things (IoT) Conference 2018 today (June 6):

Anna (Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong, Ms Anna Lin), Andy (President of the Hong Kong Internet of Things Industry Advisory Council, Mr Andy Bien), Charles (Legislative Council member Mr Charles Mok), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. I am very pleased to join you at the Hong Kong Internet of Things Conference 2018. For the sixth year now, this Conference has provided an excellent platform for experts and practitioners to share insights on the latest development of IoT technology and innovative IoT solutions. Today's theme "Unleashing the Real IoT Business Values" rightly reminds us the great potential of IoT in transforming enterprises into digital businesses and facilitating new business models, improving efficiency and enhancing customer engagement.

Over the years, IoT has been widely adopted in different sectors and transformed the world of business. Gartner predicts that by 2020, more than 65 per cent of enterprises worldwide will adopt IoT products.

For Hong Kong, IoT has long been deployed by the public as well as the private sectors for meeting different needs. In fact, Hong Kong is well-prepared to embrace the new era of IoT. A new licensing agreement for provision of Wireless Internet of Things platforms and services has been announced by the Communications Authority last year. Together with other technologies like big data analytics and artificial intelligence, IoT is also the cornerstone of a successful smart city. In the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong released last December, we have mapped out development plans in the next five years under six major areas, namely Smart Mobility, Smart Living, Smart Environment, Smart People, Smart Government and Smart Economy.

There are ample opportunities for deployment of sensors and IoT applications under each of the six areas, such as traffic detectors at all strategic roads to provide real-time traffic information, remote sensing devices to monitor air pollution and cleanliness of streets and public places, and RFID (radio frequency identification) and Bluetooth technologies to monitor vital signs of patients and healthcare management in smart hospitals.

A major IoT project for smart city development is the pilot Multi-functional Smart Lampposts for installation of 400 smart lampposts at four urban locations, i.e. Causeway Bay/Wan Chai, Central/Admiralty, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Tong.

Equipped with sensors, data networks and related digital facilities, the smart lampposts can enhance city management through collection of real-time city data like weather, environment, transportation and crowd flow. The data collected will be available on the Government's open data portal, data.gov.hk, for free access so that innovative applications can be created by the community. These smart lampposts will also be suitable for installing microcell stations of fifth generation (5G) mobile communications services and providing Wi-Fi and future 5G services to the public and tourists. We target to roll out the first phase in Kowloon East for use before mid-2019.

I am pleased to see our private sectors are also adopting Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and Low Power Radio Access technologies to facilitate the development of IoT solutions which will help drive Hong Kong into a smart city. Examples include 3 Hong Kong collaborating with Huawei in construction of an NB-IoT network, China Mobile Hong Kong and Sino Group developing a pre-5G infrastructure across Sino Group's residential and commercial properties, and SmartTone and Kai Shing Management Services Limited enabling smart property management solution at International Commerce Centre, and the Pixel Networks deploying the first city-wide low-power long range IoT network, to name just a few.

IoT solutions will give competitive advantages to enterprises large and small. With IoT, we can also turn Hong Kong into a more liveable and smarter city. Today's distinguished speakers will certainly give us more ideas on how to harness these technologies.

Before closing, let me express my gratitude to GS1 Hong Kong for hosting the Conference. I wish the event a huge success, and every one of you, a pleasant and rewarding day. Thank you.

-ENDS-