Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Sunday said artificial intelligence would bring new job opportunities to Hong Kong while boosting economic growth. Writing in his weekly blog, Chan said driven by the demands for AI-related electronic products, the city’s exports recorded year-on-year growth of 53 percent in August. He said the government was confident in achieving its GDP growth forecast of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year. Chan said AI would bring new job types and opportunities to Hong Kong. “We need talented people who understand the AI industry and have the courage to explore AI applications, as well as those in fields that even the most powerful AI cannot replace,” he wrote. “The AI literacy in our workforce and broader upskilling are crucial not only to our future competitive edge in the market, but also to Hong Kong’s ability to adapt to AI development and to our residents’ works and lives.” Chan said the government fully supports people in learning and using AI, with the authorities rolling out more than 200 training courses and activities by 2028. The finance chief also said he had arrived Doha, Qatar on Sunday morning to attend an annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Chan said he would share Hong...
Read full articleThe United States' issuance of nonimmigrant visas for Koreans fell nearly 8 percent from a year earlier in 2025 following the inauguration of the new U.S. President Donald Trump administration, data analyzed by a lawmaker's office showed Sunday. The office of Rep. Hong Kee-won of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said it recently analyzed U.S. State Department data on visa issuance per country and found that 68,130 nonimmigrant visas had been issued to Koreans last year, down 7.95 percent from 74,015 issued in 2024 during former President Joe Biden's administration. The number fell across most categories, including the B-1 business visa and the B-2 tourism visa. During the months following last September's surprise detention of hundreds of Korean workers in the U.S. state of Georgia, however, the numbers appeared to grow, according to the lawmaker's office. In December, Korea and the U.S. launched a visa support desk at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to help Korean companies investing in the U.S. with smoother entry procedures. The State Department data showed average monthly B-1 and B-2 vi
President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to the United Nations and Mexico, where he emphasized peace on the Korean Peninsula and renewed U.S.-North Korea dialogue, was overshadowed at home by controversy over the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war and a suspected land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Experts said the incidents drew attention to the challenges facing Lee’s peace initiative as Pyongyang maintains its hostile stance toward Seoul. They also questioned whether renewed U.S.-North Korea talks would adequately address South Korea’s security concerns. Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, said North Korea would be unlikely to respond positively to to peace overtures under normal circumstances, and that the incidents have likely added to the tension. “I don’t think North Korea would have shown much enthusiasm toward the Lee Jae Myung government even if these two incidents had not happened,” Nam said. “North Korea is already playing a bigger game with President Trump.” Nam said Pyongyang is more interested in negotiating direc
The officer, who pursued his alleged assailant “whilst holding on to his neck to stop the bleeding”, was only 10 weeks into the job, the police union said.
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