EVENTS
Event Highlights
Luncheon Talk on “Digital Health in ASEAN”
2026-06-24
On June 24, the Maritime Silk Road Society (MSRS), together with the Silk Road Economic Development Research Center (the Research Center) and the Federation of Hong Kong Hubei Associations (the Federation), jointly organised a luncheon seminar on the "Digital Health in ASEAN". The organizers were honoured to have Dr Charles Ng, Vice-chair of the MSRS Youth Opportunities Committee, as the keynote speaker, and to invite Dr Sigmund Leung, Executive President of the Federation, and Dr Kenny Lau, Executive Vice President of the Federation, to share the latest developments in Hong Kong's healthcare sector. Mr Joseph Chan, Chairman of the Research Centre, moderated the seminar.
Dr Charles Ng first gave an overview of the current status and development of digital healthcare in the ASEAN region. Using Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong as examples, he illustrated the different stages of development across regions. He noted that while all areas are facing the challenges of an ageing population and rising demand for healthcare services, digital telemedicine has considerable room for growth, yet developing regions still encounter certain difficulties. To promote digital healthcare, a sound legal framework and robust network coverage are essential. Digitalisation involves vast amounts of patient data and real‑time data transmission, so appropriate regulations are needed to safeguard patient privacy and prevent data misuse and theft, as well as to enable real‑time data transmission for remote diagnosis and shared medical records. Dr Ng suggested that Hong Kong could position itself as a medical data storage hub within the ASEAN region, akin to the "Switzerland of medical data".
Following that, Dr Sigmund Leung and Dr Kenny Lau shared their insightful views on Hong Kong's healthcare development. Dr Leung noted that the government places great emphasis on primary healthcare, having established the Primary Healthcare Commission and set up District Health Centres to encourage citizens to focus on health and disease prevention. Dr Lau shared his observations on the digitalisation of dental services, stressing that health data is vital for diagnosis and treatment.
In the final Q&A session, participants asked numerous questions and engaged in lively discussions on topics such as healthcare digitalisation, medical integration and data sharing between Hong Kong and the Mainland.
