Former Cyberport Chairman George Lam and former Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology David Chung crowned prestigious Iconic Stars

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 29 September 2022 - Organized by the Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia (IFTA), the IFTA FinTech Achievement Awards 2021/2022 Presentation Ceremony was held today (29 September 2022) at Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui. Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Mr Joseph Chan, JP attended as the Guest of Honour of the Ceremony. Chair, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Sustainable Business Network & Former Chairman, Hong Kong Cyberport Dr George Lam and Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology Dr David Chung received the prestigious Iconic Star awards. In its fourth edition, the IFTA FinTech Achievement Awards (the Awards) of this year was themed "Two Worlds, One Goal: The Virtualisation of Reality" to recognise the important nuances of parallel worlds both physical and virtual, as well as, the role that corporations and individuals play in their development within the economy. This year, the Awards were restructured with 2 additional sub-categories. Metaverse, NFT and Decentralised Finance (DeFi), is added as sub-categories to Corporate Achievements awards. A new Team of the Year sub-category is added to the award category Outstanding Financial Technologists of the Year to recognise the outstanding financial technologist team(s) who delivered extraordinary FinTech solutions. Last but not least, a brand-new award category, the Honorary FinTech Education & Talent Development Awards is also added to recognise organisations that have made remarkable contributions in schooling FinTech talents. This year, 37 nominees/nominated teams were shortlisted into 13 award categories, of which, the newly added "Metaverse, NFT, And DeFi (Decentralised Finance)" category received the most entries. Specially introduced in this edition, the prestigious "Iconic Star" award honours invaluable contribution of long serving fintech industry leaders. The winners are Dr George Lam, BBS, JP, Chair, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Sustainable Business Network & Former Chairman, Hong Kong Cyberport, and Dr David Chung Wai-keung, Former Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology. During his time as the former Chairman of the Cyberport, Dr George Lam had brought his rich industry experience to lead the Cyberport's vision to train technology talents, encourage entrepreneurships, nurture start-ups. Whilest Dr David Chung has spared no effort in strengthening the industry-academia-research collaboration during his tenure as the Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology, HKSAR, proming the development of innovative technology as well as high-end manufacturing industries. Both of them contributed to create a vibrant innovation and technolgy ecosystem in Hong Kong for the benefit of the local community. Chair, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Sustainable Business Network & Former Chairman of Hong Kong Cyberport, Dr George Lam, BBS, JP mentioned in his speech, "With government policy, incentives and keen efforts of everybody. We have seen the arrival of eight virtual banks, four virtual insurance companies, and a number of e-wallet companies and more coming. Going forward, I see fintech is becoming even more important as we make early improvements in regulator tech, wealth tech, in ESG, Green finance, digital asset, carbon trading, all of which are necessary for Hong Kong to transform ourselves from international financial center to a global capital center." Former Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology Dr David Chung Wai-keung says, "It's really been a wonderful journey in the past 20 years of public administration. I would say thank you to all of you for giving me such a great opportunity to work in Hong Kong, such a wonderful place. Today we have laid down the foundation and all of you contributed to the success of the Fintech industry in Hong Kong. Whatever my role would be in the near future, I will continue to dedicate myself to the fintech development of Hong Kong and the region, create more impactful projects for talent development, and also create more opportunities for Hong Kong." Officiating guest of the Ceremony, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Hong Kong SAR Government Mr Joseph Chan, JP mentions, "As you may be aware and as I introduced this last year in the IFTA's FinTech Achievement Awards presentation ceremony, the Government launched a Proof-of-Concept Subsidy Scheme in 2021 to support fintech development in Hong Kong. We provided financial incentives to financial institutions to partner with fintech companies to put forth and test innovative and practical products and services. The response was very positive, and we had received 160 applications, with over 90...