Latest news with #MayTse
South China Morning Post
01-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
More departures than arrivals in Hong Kong as ‘golden week' kicks off
Hong Kong has recorded more residents leaving the city at the beginning of the five-day Labour Day 'golden week' holiday than mainland Chinese tourists coming in, even though many inbound visitors still favour sightseeing, shopping and hiking. Advertisement As of 10am on Thursday, nearly 63,000 mainland Chinese tourists flocked to Hong Kong while more than 80,000 city residents left for other destinations. The West Kowloon terminus was packed with visitors from across the border on Thursday morning, with some of them coming in for day trips in the city while others intended to stay longer and spend more on shopping and dining. Many mainland visitors and crowds were spotted at the scenic High Island Reservoir in Sai Kung, with a heavy presence of police and staff of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to maintain order. Among those travelling via high-speed trains to Hong Kong was primary teacher Jill Yao, who arrived at the terminus at around 10am after a 1½-hour journey from Guangzhou city. Tourists arrive in Hong Kong to spend the Labour Day 'Golden day' holiday. Photo: May Tse The 42-year-old came to Hong Kong for a two-day trip with her husband, two sons aged 13 and seven, as well as her parents-in-law, before heading to Macau.
South China Morning Post
25-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong government using local ChatGPT-style AI tool powered by DeepSeek
More than 70 Hong Kong government departments have started using a locally developed ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence (AI) tool powered by DeepSeek's data learning model, the city's innovation chief has said. Advertisement The new tool, named 'HKGAI V1', is expected to be made available to the industry and the public soon and is capable of delivering instant responses to user queries through a chatbot interface. Users can input commands to access information or generate specific content such as travel itineraries, meeting notes, music and videos. The tool was developed by the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre (HKGAI) under the government's InnoHK innovation programme. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said on Tuesday that the launch of DeepSeek earlier this year took the world by storm, prompting the centre's research team to integrate the Hangzhou-based AI start-up's data learning model with HKGAI V1's processing capabilities. The system is capable of delivering instant responses to user queries through a chatbot interface. Photo: May Tse 'As of now, I can tell you that more than 70 government departments have commenced trials and are aiding in training the model, showcasing the government's strong support for this initiative,' Sun said at a global launching ceremony for the tool at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
South China Morning Post
24-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Why wealthy individuals prefer Hong Kong insurance policies for inheritances
Insurance policies were becoming a popular choice for wealthy individuals in Asia, including the Greater Bay Area, for estate planning to avoid family disputes and achieve stable growth, according to industry players. Advertisement Canadian insurer Manulife, the largest pension provider in Hong Kong, has seen growing demand for insurance products for legacy and succession-planning purposes, according to Patrick Graham, the CEO for Hong Kong and Macau. Nearly 60 per cent of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan preferred insurance policies to transfer their wealth to future generations, according to a joint survey released by Manulife and Deloitte last week. The study was based on interviews and surveys conducted in the second half of 2024 with 140 HNWIs, each with at least HK$7.8 million (US$1 million) worth of assets in those markets. Patrick Graham, CEO of Manulife Hong Kong and Macau, says Hong Kong is an ideal hub for wealthy individuals to buy policies to transfer their wealth to their families. Photo: May Tse 'The primary motivation behind this trend is preventing inheritance disputes,' Graham said.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hong Kong's market watchdog reviews 8 brokerages amid IPO oversubscription frenzy
Hong Kong's market watchdog has launched a review of eight brokerages to examine their margin financing practices after witnessing heavy oversubscriptions for some initial public offerings (IPOs). The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) was closely monitoring whether these brokerages were careful with their risk management of margin financing for new stocks, CEO Julia Leung Fung-yee said on Friday. Margin financing refers to loans that brokerages offer clients to buy stocks. "We will examine the securities firms' policies - whether they are sound, fully consider the customer's repayment ability and set appropriate loan limits to prevent overfinancing," she said. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. The SFC did not name the brokers that were being monitored. SFC CEO Julie Leung pictured in December 2022. She said individual investors should be careful in gauging demand for new shares from the oversubscription multiple alone. Photo: May Tse alt=SFC CEO Julie Leung pictured in December 2022. She said individual investors should be careful in gauging demand for new shares from the oversubscription multiple alone. Photo: May Tse> In November 2023, the SFC sent a circular to licensed companies saying they needed to prudently manage their risks when providing IPO subscription services and financing following changes introduced by the Fast Interface for New Issuance (FINI) platform. The FINI platform allows brokers to prepay for only the maximum number of shares that can be allotted in a public offering, instead of locking in funds for the entire excess amount. Some brokers offer zero-interest margin financing loans to attract customers. The SFC had urged companies to guard against any improper risk-taking activities, such as accepting large subscription orders without collecting sufficient subscription deposits from clients upfront or providing excessive IPO financing to clients. Leung's comments came after the watchdog observed that some IPOs were heavily oversubscribed because of easy margin financing terms offered by brokers since the launch of FINI. She reminded individual investors to be careful about gauging demand for new shares from the oversubscription multiple. The performance of some "hot" IPOs on the stock market was not as good as expected, she added. "The [FINI] mechanism allows brokerage firms to lend large amounts because there is a cap on funds they need to pay [as] real funding costs are not reflected," said Dickie Wong, executive director of research at Kingston Securities. The worry was this would distort the perception of the IPO and mislead the public into believing that the new shares would perform well on their debut, causing stock prices to fluctuate further, he added. Last month, Chinese toymaker Bloks Group attracted huge demand from retail investors for its HK$1.6 billion (US$206 million) IPO. Retail investors submitted orders for 6,000 times the shares allocated, making it the second-hottest IPO in the city after publisher Most Kwai Chung attracted 6,289 times of subscription for its IPO in 2018. Retail investors borrowed nearly HK$474 billion through brokerages to bid for Bloks' IPO, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited TradeGo data. Shares of Bloks rose nearly 45 per cent from its IPO price. Other highly subscribed recent IPOs include Hong Kong actor Roger Kwok's Herbs Generation Group, which listed in December, and Chinese lighting devices supplier APT Electronics' offering in November. Herbs Generation's shares dropped nearly 47 per cent after the IPO's retail tranche was oversubscribed 6,083 times. APT's shares rose nearly 21 per cent from the IPO price. Katerine Kou, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Securities Association, welcomed the SFC's move. "We all hope for clearer guidelines on the margin-financing policies," she said. "The thematic review should hopefully benefit the market as a whole." This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
South China Morning Post
30-01-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Top Hong Kong schools that offer bilingual education
From the cognitive to the cultural, the varied benefits of raising multilingual children are well known. For parents who wish to go beyond home immersion and see this incorporated into a child's school curriculum, the International Schools Guide lists many of the institutions in Hong Kong that have made multilingualism a key part of their proposition. While in practice all international schools across the city teach other languages in addition to English, the schools listed below make multilingual immersion a significant part of their academic offering, setting them apart as stand-out choices for parents who are keen on having their child grow up with a fluent command of a second or even third language. Targeted bilingual education International College Hong Kong – Hong Lok Yuen (ICHK HLY), located in Tai Po, achieved Smart School Status from the Centre for Educators of Bilingual and Multilingual Learners (BML) and has been deemed a BML Smart School for the past two years. The UK-based organisation imparts best practices for teaching bilingual and multilingual children to both educators and parents through their courses and the BML Parent Coaching Program. At ICHK HLY, all existing teachers and teaching assistants are required to complete the programme, while new staff members must complete their training within the first year of joining the school. Some schools start the bilingual immersion model from nursery. Photo: May Tse 'The demographic of international school students is now largely one where most children are from bilingual or multilingual backgrounds. It is therefore important to us that all of our staff receive specific and focused training to maximise the learning of all of our children,' explains Derek Pinchbeck, head of school at ICHK HLY.
