IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

In recent years, cities around the world have been focusing on transit-oriented development (TOD), which uses public transportation to complement diversified land use, such as commercial, residential, leisure, hotel and so on. By doing so, citizens are encouraged to choose public transportation when commuting to work, reduce dependence on private cars, and also support sustainable development. Hong Kong's urban planning often concentrates around MTR stations, it has achieved outstanding results. Hong Kong is ranked the third according to the TOD assessment of 14 cities in the world by the World Bank.

Is there any room for improvement? Previous studies mostly focused on MTR stations and the surrounding areas. The first runner-up of this year’s Esri Young Scholars Award, Cheng Chi Chiu, David from Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong expanded the scope to review Hong Kong from a regional level. He looked for development opportunities that we might have missed.

In recent years, Hong Kong has made significant strides in its smart city initiative, with the government and private sector collaborating to implement a range of digital solutions across transportation, healthcare, public services, and more. However, the full potential of these smart city applications has often been limited by the constraints of traditional wireless connectivity solutions.

Hong Kong continues to take significant steps forward in leveraging cutting-edge technologies to drive innovation and efficiency. Most recently is the adoption of private 5G (P5G) networks enabling a new wave of smart city applications and use cases.

“The success of government technology is not dependent solely on bits and cables – infrastructure, internet speed, and ubiquitous connectivity. No vision of smartness or technological advancement is possible without public trust and political legitimacy,” writes Kris Hartley.

In February 2024, Hong Kong police announced plans to instal 615 new surveillance cameras in areas of the city with “high crime figures and high pedestrian flows.” The announcement also mentioned the possibility of equipping the cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. This news follows a January 2024 announcement that 2,000   surveillance cameras would be installed around the city this year. According to an RTHK article, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk “added that he understood some people had privacy concerns, but said many other places had more CCTV cameras than Hong Kong.”

The platform, which is projected to cost the government roughly $242m over a five year period, was first proposed in May 2012 as a way of making public services more agile in the way it procures IT services.

The integration of technology into rural areas in mainland China has helped lift their populations out of poverty. Hong Kong could learn from this. With social support and encouragement, developing a “hi-tech countryside” can serve rural residents, improving their quality of life.

The 14th five-year plan supports developing Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub. To integrate into the nation’s development and the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong must promote technology cooperation and exchange with the mainland.

No shortage of tech inventors and innovators in the city, but it is hard to commercialise their products

Ronald Pong watched with dismay as some Hong Kong cabbies carried out undercover sting operations recently to expose Uber drivers who did not have permits to pick up passengers.

The taxi drivers’ frustration with competition from the popular ride-hailing platform has festered for years, but the angry confrontation was also a sign of what was holding Hong Kong back in the global race to embrace technology.

The government has made a firm commitment to becoming a smart city, but officials need to craft a convincing narrative that the result of their efforts will translate into a better quality of life for residents

The term "smart cities" refers to the use of technology to improve the quality and efficiency of urban public services. Hong Kong's Smart City Blueprint 2.0 outlines a commitment to becoming a smart city, including in transport, health, education and the environment. With nearly US$200 billion expected to be spent on smart city platforms worldwide this year, it is appropriate to ask whether the idea is worth the price tag.

Public mistrust of the government threatens Hong Kong’s long-term ambitions to become a smart city, according to panellists of the annual China Conference organised by the Post, who highlighted the importance of improving communication with residents to avoid future misunderstandings.

Analysts on Thursday pointed to privacy fears surrounding the launch of the government’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app “Leave Home Safe” as an example of how public confidence was impeding Hong Kong’s technological rise.

Yam Ki Chan says the government’s grand plan to promote innovation won’t get far without efforts to accelerate digitisation in SMEs, strengthen e-government services, and popularise STEM education in schools – in other words, make technology accessible to the masses

The annual tradition of the Hong Kong chief executive’s policy address is almost here. In her maiden address last October, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced an ambitious plan to diversify Hong Kong’s economy by promoting innovation and technology. The government then released the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong and allocated HK$50 billion towards technology-related initiatives.

• Smart mobility forms part of Hong Kong’s broader Smart City effort, which the government first announced in 2014
• The government released a Smart City Blueprint in late 2017, which was updated in 2020 as Smart City Blueprint 2.0

Hong Kong’s decade-old “Smart City” ambition has sparked the development of new programmes and fresh investments in a range of green and more efficient modes of transport, according to delegates at the Smart Mobility Forum on Friday.

I refer to Avisekh Biswas’ letter (“Time for Hong Kong to go from ‘Asia’s world city’ to world’s smart city”, July 12) and concur with the stated remarks. The challenge with Hong Kong becoming a “smart city” is not with the private sector but the government’s intent of operating as if it is the 20th century.

Consider that numerous government departments still require the submission of paper forms and that such forms and associated documents must be “chopped”. This is all on the pretence that this makes the documents “official”.

Discover how Hong Kong is leading smart city innovation and what to expect at InnoEX 2025, from AI to smart mobility and cybersecurity.

As cities worldwide accelerate their digital transformation efforts, few urban centres exemplify the potential of smart city development like Hong Kong.

Positioned as a global technology and business hub, Hong Kong is working to seamlessly integrate innovation into its infrastructure, services, and economy. Its commitment to advancing smart technologies is not only enhancing quality of life for its people but also reinforcing the city’s role as a leader in digital transformation.

Stimulating creativity through contests is only the first step in the innovation value chain; creative execution is equally important

Hong Kong’s first City I&T Grand Challenge has started inviting submissions. The HK$500 million contest aims to draw creative I&T solutions from all sectors to improve quality of life with the use of data and advanced technology, such as 5G and blockchain

Imagine the following scenario in a doctor’s office in Hong Kong. “Doctor, you have seven online patients and two colonoscopies to perform today.”

The doctor logs onto the tele-console – three patients with their identities verified are already waiting. He clicks on the first patient and a Mr Chan appears on screen.

A 53-square-kilometer area in Beijing's Haidian district is being transformed into an artificial intelligence (AI) innovation zone, where AI doctors serve communities, humanoid robots staff convenience stores, and intelligent systems support governance.

Technology is deeply integrated into daily life, driving transformative possibilities for urban development within an AI-powered intelligent city pilot zone.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is set to help Algeria build e-government by digitizing a large volume of official documents of various ministries, a senior manager from Huawei told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Algeria has launched a performance improvement program of its administration, and Huawei hopes to participate in this project with local partners," said Gao Jie, the general manager of Huawei Telecoms Algeria.

On Dec. 15, GPU inventor NVIDIA announced at its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) that it will work with Chinese retail giant JD.com to build the first smart city with the world’s first level-4 smart delivery vehicle application.

The project is operating in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, a top 5 county-level city with the highest GDP in China. JD plans to put 100 smart delivery robots into operation in the city by the end of this year to facilitate the smart city construction.

On August 27, 2025, Financial界 reported that Jiangsu Smart Factory Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. has recently applied for a patent titled "An AI-Based Smart City Evaluation System and Its Method," attracting industry attention. This patent combines AI, digital twin, and urban operation diagnosis, indicating that smart city management is developing towards a more intelligent and refined direction.

On February 20, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences held the “Rule of Law Blue Book - Publishing, Development and Outlook on the Rules of Law Symposium 2012” in Beijing. As the only representative of major cities, the Dalian municipal government shared its experiences at the meeting. They made a speech and discussed how to “promote in-depth integration of administrative affairs and technology while weaving two networks for publicizing government information.”

Based on the country's strategy to promote the development of blockchain, LikeLib2.0 focuses on the core issues of blockchain applications in various fields, take typical blockchain applications as an important breakthrough, promote breakthroughs in key application technologies of blockchain, and study blockchain service architecture, data Key technologies such as access technology, hybrid storage, data source, cross-chain and sharding, blockchain and IoT intelligent system integration, and develop a basic platform for blockchain services, in blockchain education and training, e-government, supply chain, and carry out application demonstrations in key areas such as finance to open up the innovation chain, application chain and value chain, thus providing common and secure blockchain basic support capabilities.