March will certainly be another period of intense, concentrated efforts for the Institution. As we brace ourselves for the goals to be achieved, it will be beneficial to provide a retrospective of our activities in the recent past as well as a lookahead at some of the upcoming noteworthy events.
The return of the Hong Kong Engineers Week Carnival from 1 to 3 March, a signature event in the Hong Kong Engineers Week 2024 (HKEW2024), will once again inject some much-needed vitality into our profession. All sorts of engineering-related booths—many of them educational—will be open for public browsing, with music, dance, magic show, freestyle football, and other performances on a stage nearby to entertain our visitors. If you feel generous to support our work to present engineering in a new light, stop by Harbourside Lawn in West Kowloon Cultural District on one of these days. You will have helped dismantle whatever stereotypes that are still persistent in the profession.
Another major focus of HKEW 2024 is the career fairs to be held throughout March at a wide spectrum of tertiary institutions. With the participation of approximately 60 companies, students will find in these fairs a wealth of opportunities to explore career options. For March, the participating institutions are Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education - Tsing Yi (4th), Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Professional Education and Executive Development (5th), City University of Hong Kong (8th), Chinese University of Hong Kong (12-13th), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (19th), and University of Hong Kong (21st).
It is, of course, not during HKEW 2024 exclusively that we scout talents through career fairs. In the UK, too, we co-organised such fairs from 30 January to 2 February with the Development Bureau and several other institutes. Immediate Past President Ir Aaron Bok joined in and spoke on Hong Kong’s engineering career prospects during the career talks at University of Leeds, University of Warwick, and the ICE Headquarters. The Institution also contributed, on January 30, to the career fair at City University of Hong Kong, which boasted a total of 70 local and multinational corporations as exhibitors and almost 3,000 job and internship openings. Through these fairs, students and fresh graduates were acquainted with the opportunities on offer in our city’s engineering industry.
When it comes to attracting talents to work with us, few things are more important than to create favourable conditions for local engineers’ flourishing. We must therefore solicit media’s help to make our voice heard—specially on how, in our professional opinion, such conditions may be established. On 1 February, we held a media gathering to do exactly this with the 2024-25 Budget. The response from media was overwhelming, and we took the opportunity to reiterate our recommendation to raise the subsidies for Scheme “A” companies employing graduates under the Engineering Graduate Training Scheme (EGTS) to HK$10,000 per month. This being only one of our many recommendations, a more detailed summary of our views is available here.
Another event was the briefing session on Basic Law Article 23 legislation on 23 February. It attracted significant attention from members, with almost 300 of them attending online and personally. Mr Simon Wong, Principal Assistant Secretary of the Security Bureau, and Mr Vernon Loh, Senior Assistant Solicitor General (Human Rights), gave an overview of the legislation and answered some commonly raised questions. We thank them for thus enhancing our understanding of this complex topic.
Looking ahead, the Institution will have the great honour of serving as the Hong Kong-based organising unit of the Guangzhou-held Mainland and Hong Kong Construction Forum 2024 (2024年內地與香港建築論壇) on 26 and 27 March, cooperating with Mainland-based parties to catalyse this important event, to which many other professional associations and the trade will also contribute significantly. Under the theme of “Promoting high-quality construction in the Greater Bay Area and collaborating to advance the Belt and Road Initiative,” the forum promises to be an excellent platform for stakeholders and professionals in the construction industry to exchange professional knowledge, establish connections, and explore cooperation opportunities. I am honoured to be invited to moderate a forum session on innovative technologies in construction, while Vice President Ir Prof Frank Chan will speak on the subject of “新質生產力～建造業工業化” and engage in a roundtable discussion.
Finally, the 46th edition of the HKIE Annual Dinner will be held on 15 March. Members from all walks of life, brought together by their common devotion to the Institution, will bear witness to the high achievements of some of our outstanding members. In a Prize Presentation Ceremony, we will give due acknowledgments to the recipients of Honorary Fellows, Gold Medal, President’s Award, Young Engineer of the Year Award, and Grand Award. I look forward to seeing you all there; such a celebratory occasion will definitely not be the same without the presence of you all.
Regardless of what is at stake—HKEW 2024, Annual Dinner, or any of our knowledge-sharing activities—what matters most is always your active engagement, which is both our motivation and our reward.
Division Annual General Meetings (AGM) of Session 2023/2024
Division AGMs of Session 2023/2024 will be held during early April to mid-May 2024. Circulars for each Divisions’ AGMs will be sent to Division members' registered email addresses via the HKIE eNewsletter system and posted on the websites of both the Institution and Divisions. Members can update their correspondence information and membership status in the Member Login area on the HKIE website or by contacting the Membership Section at member@hkie.org.hk.
Vice President Nomination
Members are reminded that nominations for election as Vice President for Session 2024/2025 will be closed on 11 March 2024 at 5:30pm. The nomination form and related information are available at the Institution’s website at http://www.hkie.org.hk.
Conferment of the “20 Years Plus Caring Organisation Logo”
We are pleased to announce that the Institution has been awarded the Caring Organisation Logo 2023/2024 from the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) for participating in their programmes for 20 consecutive years since 2004.
This logo recognises our commitment to Caring for the Community, Caring for the Employees, and Caring for the Environment over the past years. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all our members for your unfailing support of the Institution.
Let us join hands to create a more caring society in the coming years.
