The Young Reporter

Ban Kyungmin, an exchange student at Hong Kong Baptist University, came to the Korean consulate with a friend on the first day of the election to vote.  "I've always participated since I had the right to vote. I knew that I could vote overseas, so I applied in advance to participate in the overseas elections,” she said. South Korea is holding parliamentary elections on April 10th. Under the overseas election system, which was introduced after the amendment of the Public Offices Election Act in 2009, the Korean Central Election Commission announced that it would set up overseas voting stations in 178 diplomatic missions around the world, so Koreans living in Hong Kong will be able to vote at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Hong Kong from March 27 to April 1 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on each day.   The Hong Kong Korean Association and other Korean student organizations in all Hong Kong universities and colleges have been eagerly anticipating the event and have been promoting it through their respective online communities and social media. Election officials are at the entrance to guide the election. “I think it's an opportunity for Koreans abroad to feel a sense of belonging to Korea and to unite with other Koreans living abroad,"  Ban Kyung-min added. Kyungmin Ban and her friend make a "vote-proof pose". The Korean Central Election Commission is responsible for preventing and cracking down on election crimes and supervising election administration. The Overseas Election Commission comprises two members nominated by the NEC, one nominated by each of the political parties that form a bargaining group in the National Assembly, and one nominated by the head of the diplomatic mission.  Overseas missions and the Election Commission have recruited various personnel, including poll guides and election officials.  …

The first hydrogen double-decker buses in Hong Kong set sail in February for the Vodafone Road route. Starting from 2022, the electric buses are appearing on the Hong Kong’s street to reduce emissions more than diesel buses as part of the public transportation sector’s efforts to help Hong Kong achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.  

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po delivered the 2024-2025 Budget speech on Wednesday, announcing policies to strive for high-quality development while sustaining a solid economy. Top the list is the cancellations of property cooling measures, with Special Stamp Duty, Buyers’ Stamp Duty and New Residential Stamp Duty scrapped with immediate effect. For the coming fiscal year, the total government expenditure will increase by about 6.7% to HK$776.9 billion, while the total government revenue is estimated to be HK$633 billion. Chan expects that there will be a deficit of HK$48.1 billion for the year, and fiscal reserves will decrease to HK$685.1 billion. Here are the key takeaways of this year’s budget plan.  

Florian Spiegel hopes to save the planet by promoting fuel-related securities, which represent a part of impact investing. Recently, his company Evident Capital released the world’s first tokenised airplane leasing fund with a fund mandate on sustainable fuels.  The Global Impact Investor Network, a US-based non-profit organisation that promotes impact investing, defines impact investing as investments that aim to create social and environmental impact alongside financial return.  Compared to traditional investment, which focuses on risk and return, impact investment aims to put a new axis on investment-- mainly, the social impact investments have.  In recent years, a growing number of corporations have recognised the importance of aligning their financial investment with their social and environmental goals, and the impact investing landscape is changing as new actors. Spiegel’s company, Evident Capital, aims to improve the financial market through transitional investment, a branch of impact investment. To cut the costs of current fossil fuel giants through cleaning the process, transitional investment incentivises oil and transport companies to invest in fuel-cutting equipment. Evident’s platform receives various private projects and then uploads them as divided digital securities on their network.    One of their projects, a Liquified Natural Gas carrier ship from Honduras, was able to raise enough funding from the security to build and buy new carriers, making it more efficient to use fossil fuels than other companies.  “A one percent decrease in the carrier gas industry can reduce more carbon than what 20,000 solar panels can create in a year,” Spiegel said.  Although official numbers cannot be listed, the company says uploaded products have reached a total of US$ 50 million (HK$ 391 million) within the year they have been on the platform.  “Small to medium investors who want to reach the impact investment market right now do not have enough funds …

As Brisbane aims to become a greener city, the trend of green roofs is gaining momentum. While green roofs offer benefits, they also present challenges that cities must address before implementing new policies. Green roofs are also just one piece of the puzzle. Rather than relying on green roofs as one solution, cities like Hong Kong should view them as catalysts for inspiring more initiatives that pave the way towards a greener future.

With an iPad’s front camera, artificial intelligence and sitting still for just 30 seconds, Vitals, an AI-powered app, can tell your vital signs by simply scanning the colour changes in your face. Vitals was developed by Panoptic.AI, a Hong Kong-based healthtech company founded in August 2022. The health and wellness monitoring app can identify up to 15 health indicators, including your breathing rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation, which can help track current lifestyle conditions and detect any potential health risks down the line. As the colours in your face are affected by blood flow, signals that only show these changes are tracked, which can also filter out “blind spots” such as beards and tattoos. Next, the signals are sent to the company through the cloud, while any personal identifiable information is kept back on the user’s device. Kyle Wong, CEO and co-founder of the start-up, says the product’s idea stems from their previous projects involving temperature screening and thermal imaging technology in large-scale areas, such as border control points and government facilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s team realised that it was challenging to identify asymptomatic patients who did not show signs of fever or had taken medication that lowers their temperature, said Wong. “We were doing a lot of research about using a camera, trying to find what other features we can measure from the person,” Wong said. “That led to the idea of what we have now, which is by using a regular camera, and we're talking about the camera of your smartphone, your everyday, off-the-shelf device, we're able to measure these biomarkers,” he said. Artificial intelligence is developing in Hong Kong’s health technology industry as it transforms health and well-being services into a personalised and self-manageable tool.  The rise of artificial intelligence in digital wellness …

The 2024 Hong Kong Race Week drew to a close on Feb.4. The six day event was the second time it was held since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2019. Ten classes of the event including both professional and amateur levels competed in Repulse Bay, Deep Water Bay, Stanley, Tai Tam and Lo Chau. This year’s Hong Kong Race Week was co-organised with the 29er Asian Sailing Championships, attracting 273 local and overseas sailors.   Asia's top ranked sailors, Hangzhou Asian Games medallists and the winners in the last Hong Kong Race Week also gathered at Middle Island to compete. Many junior athletes from Shenzhen, Nanjing and Qingdao  travelled to Hong Kong accompanied by their club coaches or parents to participate in the juniors category, a first for the event.

Environmentally-conscious artists and experts in the textile industry want to go back to the basics by promoting the use of natural indigo.

Christina Ho tried to keep the airplane’s rudder steady while responding to air traffic controls.  She used to be a fashion designer but became an airline pilot for one of Hong Kong's leading airlines five years ago. Only 5.8% of the commercial airline pilots in the world are women, according to the data released by the International Society of Women Pilots.   “As one of the few girls with no experience or engineering background in the class, I always reminded myself not to compare with others but only try my best,” Ho said. “I’ve never worried about the difficulties of being a woman or other people’s prejudice.” Ho once had an opportunity to enter the cockpit and watch the captain's professional operation when she was a flight attendant. She fell in love with this career and was attracted by its multi-tasking characteristics. “My heart beats faster and faster while taking off and speeding up, ” Ho said. “This experience inspired me to take hold of the motivation to learn when I come across something that captures my interest. ” At first, Ho’s mother didn't understand the hard work involved in the pilot training course.  “After I flew with my mother for more than two hours in Australia when I graduated,  my mother learned more about my work, understood my pilot dream and supported my career,” Ho said.  Being a pilot is one of a number of professions that’s traditionally dominated by men. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Opportunity Index, 41% of women in Asia Pacific believe they have fewer career development opportunities than men. A third of them thought gender was a barrier and there’s a lack of mentorship for women. Taki Li, 33, a head bartender at Bar Leone in Central, has been in this field for eight years. “My family …