The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) helped the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) reach a research agreement with AI Medical Service (AIM) – a Japanese medical start-up which develops artificial intelligence (AI) endoscopic diagnostic technology – to accelerate development, promote it in Hong Kong and enhance clinical application in other Asian economies.
The second International Healthcare Week (IHW), organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and supported by a wide range of healthcare sector partners, runs from 16 to 31 May in Hong Kong, leveraging the city’s strategic role as an innovation and investment healthcare hub in Asia.
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) set up the Hong Kong Fashion Pavilion at the third China International Consumer Goods Fair (Consumer Expo) and led 22 Hong Kong companies to the exhibition, promoting more than 50 high-quality brands of mid-to-high-end consumer goods, and expanding the huge domestic market.
With the theme of Reimagining the Future of Healthcare, the third Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH) runs in Hong Kong on 17 and 18 May. The conference assembles stakeholders – from healthcare experts to renowned academia and influential business leaders, together with key industry players, innovative start-ups, investors and policymakers – from around the world to exchange insights, explore opportunities and collaborate on the diverse and dynamic healthcare sector.
Mainland China presents massive domestic sales opportunities. The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) led Hong Kong companies to participate in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai last year and helped Hong Kong companies find partners to introduce organic and healthy foods from countries along the Belt and Road to the mainland market.
Boasting the longest life expectancy in the world, Hong Kong generates strong demand for medical and health services and products. Hong Kong company Enlighten developed a wireless home-care system to ensure elderly people could easily call for assistance. With the help of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council's (HKTDC) Transformation Sandbox (T-box) programme, they successfully expanded into the UK market.
Social-distancing rules led to many nail salons closing during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting two university classmates to step out of their comfort zones and invest a significant sum in starting up a home-based nail art business. The duo design and produce relatively environmentally friendly and easy-to-use nail art stickers that allow even novices to easily decorate their own nails.
Interest in healthcare and medical developments continues to grow, as economies worldwide recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Market leaders and industry players again congregated at the HKTDC Hong Kong International Medical and Healthcare Fair showcasing medical trends and innovations. Now in its 13th edition, the fair continued to draw an international crowd, including representatives from the Consulates General of Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, and the United States. The physical-online hybrid format, in which the event was conducted, encouraged both on-site and online interactions.
Hong Kong earlier this month hosted its second Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH), as the city continues to garner international attention after further loosening COVID-19 restrictions. This year’s theme – “Charting a New Course in Healthcare through Collaboration” resonated strongly with Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab (main picture), Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization. In her video speech at the event’s opening session, Dr Jakab said the pandemic had infected more than 600 million people globally and claimed 6.5 million lives, so there was an “opportunity and, indeed, an obligation to learn from this pandemic” and accelerate progress on universal healthcare through concerted efforts in science, research, innovation, data and digital technologies.
Kung Wo Tong has been a well-established business for more than 100 years in Hong Kong. The company uses secret recipes passed down from the Qing dynasty to produce a herbal jelly using Guiling paste. The founder's granddaughter started her own business in recent years with her own brand Gui Ling Yuan Fang, aiming to modernise Hong Kong’s herbal tea culture and promote the concept of health preservation to a younger consumer base.
Two of the many issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting control measures were limited opportunities for exercise, especially indoors, and idle space in commercial buildings. Hong Kong entrepreneur Dinesh Nihalchand has come up with what he believes is a future-proof solution for the fitness business that offers contactless personal training while optimising under-utilised real-estate assets at the same time.
A serial entrepreneur based in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, France-born Sophie Martineau set up her medical supplies business Aquila Healthcare under the brand AquilaVIE in 2020. The launch was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks rapidly outpaced supply.
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