News

The SIE Fund has been exploring ways to address the challenges and opportunities arising from an ageing population through innovative means and more extensive cross-sector collaboration. On 28 April 2021, the SIE Fund Task Force, keen to keep abreast of the latest development and application of gerontechnology (gerontech), visited two service centres in Shatin operating under the Jockey Club “age at home” Gerontech Education and Rental Service scheme funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and administered by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service. The Jockey Club “age at home” Gerontech Education and Rental Service Centre, which exhibits gerontech equipment and provides educational activities and consultancy and equipment rental services, is operated jointly by Hong Kong Red Cross and Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service – Hong Kong, whereas the Gerontech Cleaning and Maintenance Service Centre operated by St. James' Settlement offers one-stop services for cleaning, disinfection, quality check, maintenance and re-packaging of rental equipment. While enabling members of the Task Force to understand more about the application of gerontech, the visit provided a good reference for the Fund on fostering the development of the gerontech ecosystem in Hong Kong.

To foster the development and application of gerontech in Hong Kong, the SIE Fund has earlier appointed an intermediary to develop an inclusive Gerontech Platform to facilitate exchange and collaboration among different stakeholders on the supply and demand sides, and link up those organisations engaged in promoting the development of gerontech in the society. The aim is to gather the efforts of all stakeholders to address the ageing issue in a holistic manner. The project has commenced in January 2021 and will last for three years. Please visit this webpage for more information about the project.

With the passage of the Appropriation Bill 2021 by the Legislative Council on 28 April 2021, an injection of $500 million to the SIE Fund will be made in 2021-22 as set out in the Chief Executive’s 2020 Policy Address Supplement.

The funding injection would allow the SIE Fund to further promote social innovation and nurture social entrepreneurship as a means to alleviating poverty and social exclusion as well as fostering the well-being and cohesion of the society. In addition to the ongoing initiatives such as the establishment of the Gerontechnology Platform and collaboration with intermediaries to support social entrepreneurs and innovative projects, the Fund would continue to explore other approaches to enable more innovative ideas, products and services to address social needs and create greater and more lasting social impact.