Joggers exercise along the promenade at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park as the International Commerce Centre is visible across the Victoria Harbour on Sept 21, 2023. (SHAMIM ASHRAF / CHINA DAILY)

The government will adopt more proactive strategies to attract a range of talents to Hong Kong and help them integrate in the city, Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu said at a local event on Thursday.

In the first 10 months of this year, about 180,000 people applied to come to Hong Kong through various talent admission schemes, of which more than 110,000 applications have been approved. Among them, a total of about 55,000 applications have been received under the Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), and over 43,000 have been approved.

To promote regional exchange and cooperation in talent attraction, the Hong Kong SAR government will organize a “Global Talent Summit cum Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area High-quality Talent Development Conference” in 2024

More than 70,000 people have successfully settled in Hong Kong this year, which is more than double the annual target of 35,000, Lee said at the inauguration ceremony of the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association. This proves Hong Kong’s competitiveness in attracting talents from around the world, Lee noted.

In order to enrich Hong Kong's talent pool, the government further expanded its talent admission schemes in this year's Policy Address announced in October. Eight more top institutions from the Chinese mainland and overseas were added to the list of eligible universities under the TTPS, visa requirements for talents from Vietnam, Laos, and Nepal were relaxed, and the physical office of the Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE) was established.

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To promote regional exchange and cooperation in talent attraction, the Hong Kong SAR government will organize a “Global Talent Summit cum Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area High-quality Talent Development Conference” in 2024.

During the event, Chris Sun Yuk-han, secretary for Labour and Welfare, said in the first 10 months of 2023, there were more than 5,000 TTPS applications per month, and one-third of the applicants were under 30 years old. At present, all the procedures of the TTPS can be completed online, and the approval time is within four weeks. In future, the government will continue to facilitate the process to attract and retain more talents.

According to the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association, which was registered in July this year and is one of the partners of the HKTE, the number of persons admitted under the TTPS and their families receiving ID cards has rapidly exceeded 1 percent of Hong Kong's total population since the implementation of the scheme.

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In order to help new arrivals integrate into Hong Kong society, the association has organized job-seeking sessions as well as a series of seminars to introduce children’s schooling, medical care, and other aspects of social life in Hong Kong. In future, they will also cooperate with the government to provide support to these talents in job-seeking, socializing, and cultural exchanges.