Dear members

Our golden jubilee is not only a milestone to celebrate; it is a vantage point from which to chart a bolder course. The world’s engineering challenges–energy transition, resilient cities, secure and ethical technologies–do not respect borders. Nor should our ambition. Our new Memorandum of Understanding with The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) and the establishment of an HKIE mainland office on its campus, open a substantive corridor for talent mobility and industry collaboration across the Greater Bay Area and beyond. This is how we accelerate the pace at which ideas become solutions, and solutions become standards.

Momentum also comes from within.? October has been a month of purposeful engagement with the education sector, where the future of our profession takes shape.? We are establishing partnerships to deliver workshops and hands-on immersive experiences that aim to spark ambition among students. I was privileged to deliver a lecture to Year 1 Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering students at the City University of Hong Kong as part of their Engineers in Society course–meeting next-generation engineers in emerging fields and exploring opportunities and constraints before us in Hong Kong. ?We are engaging academic departments–particularly in biomedical engineering–to encourage professional membership. ??My Proteges have been arranging visits to tertiary institutions to demystify the Professional Assessment with first-hand insights; I look forward to joining some of these sessions.

This outward stance must be matched by inner resolve. In recent media conversations, I spoke candidly about uncertainty–market volatility, shifting expectations, and the very concerns they bring. Engineers are trained to face constraints squarely. Yet realism need not become frustration. It can be the discipline that helps us prioritise what matters most, build innovation into everyday practice, and turn headwinds into lift. When we place excellence, safety, and value at the centre of our decisions, we send a powerful signal about the calibre of Hong Kong engineers.

Safety–of our workforce and society at large–remains paramount. ?We recently met with the Labour and Welfare Bureau to advance design-for-safety principles and will continue to seek stronger support across the Administration and industry. ?Similar meetings with the Housing Authority and the Urban Renewal Authority focused on the maintenance and renovation of Hong Kong’s ageing buildings. We are moving to establish a dedicated task force to develop pragmatic, scalable solutions that can be shared as good practice across the sector.

Our engagements in the months ahead are designed to compound this momentum. In November, during the Presidential Visit to the UK, we will gather with members, kindred institutions and partners at a cocktail reception in London and convene an international conference at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on “Engineering the Future”. The hybrid format of the conference ensures that distance is no barrier to participation. Refer to our earlier eNewsletter for details and registration.

Shortly thereafter, I will attend COP30 in Brazil. The message from its leadership is unambiguous: urgency and private-sector leadership must now translate into scale. Our response should be equally clear–embedding decarbonisation, climate resilience, nature-positive design, and circularity into our standards, procurement, teaching and practice, so that sustainability is not an adjunct but a signature of Hong Kong engineers. ?We will use COP30 to deepen international exchanges and bring back insight that can strengthen our programmes and advocacy.

Anniversaries invite introspection. What should define us in the next 50 years? I hope we will be known as connectors who bridge regions and disciplines with ease; as standard-setters who turn good ideas into common practice; and as stewards who leave infrastructures, institutions, and ecosystems stronger than we found them. This is a discipline, built project by project, partnership by partnership, generation by generation.

I invite you to lend your voice and expertise–join the UK events online or in person, engage with our mainland office to seed new collaborations, and mentor young colleagues to weave sustainability into the fabric of their work. If our anniversary is a harbour, let us use it to refit for open water: more outward-looking, more impactful, and more determined to serve the public good.

Ir Alice Chow
President
The HKIE