Hong Kong’s young people can take a leaf from the athletes striving for outstanding performance at the Paris Olympics and become the “champions of their own stories”, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told told the Youth Development Summit on Saturday.

He said the special administrative region government is committed to providing a good environment for young people’s growth to help them embrace global perspectives, patriotism, ambitions and hope for the future.

The summit, themed “Set Sail for New Horizons”, is the first of its kind held in the SAR. It kicked off on Saturday morning, attended by more than 1,000 officials, innovators and young leaders from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and overseas.

Lee said young people are future pillars and the greatest assets of the country and the SAR government. Hong Kong is an ideal place for them to unleash their vigor and talent and pursue excellence.

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Citing the city’s young athletes who have achieved outstanding results at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lee said Hong Kong is very proud of them. Each athlete has demonstrated determination, passion and team spirit at the world’s premier sporting event, which are all valuable attributes of the Hong Kong spirit.

“But more than medals, each athlete has demonstrated great determination, unwavering efforts, energetic passion and strong team spirit, all valuable attributes of the Hong Kong spirit,” he said, adding that the unyielding professionalism and sportsmanship shown by every one of them have made the people in Hong Kong proud.

“While we can’t all be Olympic champions, we can all be champions of our own stories,” he said, urging young people to learn from the athletes.

Lee said the SAR is striving to provide youths with a nurturing environment and hope for the future by developing a diverse and high-quality education system, luring high-caliber talents from all around the world, and encouraging young people to capitalize on the opportunities brought by the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.

Pointing out that five of Hong Kong universities are ranked among the world's top 100, he said the authorities are also working to enhance the status of vocational and professional education and training.

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Since the end of 2022, the government has launched a range of enhanced talent admission schemes and more than 140,000 successful applicants have already arrived in Hong Kong, he said.

Along with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, and the Belt and Road Initiative, Hong Kong is well-placed in connecting the mainland with both traditional and emerging markets around the globe, and to connect a world of investors to the Chinese market, he said.

“The development potential of Hong Kong, and every young person who joins us here, is unlimited. We have been encouraging young people to capitalize on these opportunities, and become more involved in actively contributing to the overall development of our country.”

Speaking at the event, Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki said that the government's Youth Development Blueprint rolled out in December 2022, the blueprint contains more than 160 measures to provide all-round support for young people aged between 12 and 39; and around 60 additional measures added last year.

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The measures include the Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth, which was expanded the so that more young people can take part in government advisory committees through self-nomination, said the secretary.

“To date, 85 government advisory committees have joined the Scheme, covering trade and industry, innovation and technology, human resources planning, child affairs, and much more. The overall youth participation rate is encouraging. It doubled from some eight per cent at the launch of the scheme, in end-2017, to some 16 percent by the end of last year.”

Ahmed Al-Majed, deputy minister for society development of Saudi Arabia, said at the opening session that young people account for 44 percent of his country’s total population and 78 percent of its workforce.

Saudi Arabia’s youth policy aims to support youth entrepreneurship plans in different fields, such as innovation and ecological environment, he said.

Kingmano Phommahaxay, deputy minister of education and sports of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, noted that the key elements of the Lao government’s policy on youth development are education, sports and training.

He said Laos welcomed the recent historic visit to the country by Lee and a high-powered delegation during which both sides signed a number of memorandums of understanding to promote ties on various fronts, and Hong Kong agreed will to provide more scholarships for Lao students seeking higher education in the city.

Malaysian Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Adam Adli Abdul Halim, said Malaysia cultivates an innovative and restrictive educational environment, enabling young people to become lifelong learners who adapt to the development of the world and have the ability to cope with future complexities.

Paris Olympics gold medalist Vivian Kong Man-wai attended one of the thematic sessions in the afternoon, sharing her thoughts on how to inspire and empower youths through positive thinking.

The 30-year-old epee fencer clinched the city’s first gold medal in 2024 Paris Olympics by defeating French player Auriane Mallo-Breton 13-12 in the women’s epee final on the first day of the competition on July 28 – her first Olympics gold in her career.

Kong said she was lucky and privileged to have been a fencer and enjoyed so much support in pursuing her dreams. She admitted she was nervous before the Paris Olympics but had always put all her energy into training to soothe her mind. The tension gave her the confidence to tell herself she was making every effort to overcome difficulties.

The star fencer said she just focused on one touch at a time at the Olympics, eventually enabling her to win the gold medal.

She thanked everyone who was still awake in the early hours of that morning to cheer her in the competition, and hopes she’ll be able to give back to society and inspire more young people to pursue their dreams in the future.

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The one-day summit also featured two thematic sessions focusing on the topics of new quality productive forces and youth creativity.

The conference, organized by the SAR’s Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, invited officials in charge of youth policies from various regions, as well as business leaders, technology innovators, creative professionals, young entrepreneurs and representatives of youth organizations as guest speakers.

The event also kicked off year’s Youth Fest, an initiative aimed at providing a wide spectrum of activities for young people to nurture positive thinking and facilitate cross-border exchanges.

Contact the writer at fangxue@chinadailyhk.com