Reach out to Leaders: Ir Dr The Hon Lo
Wai Kwok, SBS, MH, JP, Representative of the Engineering Functional
Constituency of the Legislative Council
Date: 7 October 2020
Time: 16:30pm
Venue: LegCo Complex
EVD Representatives: Ir Dr Anthony Ma, Ir
Kelvin Tang, Ir Vincent Lee, Ir PC Lo, Ir Thomas Chan, Ir Peter Chow
EVD was privileged to have the Engineering
Leader, Ir Dr The Hon Lo Wai-kwok, to share his insights into the opportunities,
prospects and sustainable development of environmental engineering industry in future.
An interview video will be also posted on EVD’s website, Facebook and IG in November
2020.
WK opines Hong Kong’s key environmental challenge
is waste management and soon adopts the high-technology IWMF for
waste-to-energy. In Great Bay Area, it is critical for various governments to
establish collaboration mechanisms and targets to achieve. In the 21st
century, climate change is the global challenge calling for concerted effort.
To tackle these, WK considers the Government
and engineering industry should joint hands to boost environmental economics with
innovative technologies as a future strategy. New forms of energy for vehicles like
electric power, hydrogen fuel, etc were rapidly developed in the past 20 years.
Waste-to-Energy technologies have well been applied in PRD cities aiming to
achieve “near zero emission”. These demonstrate the target to achieve a circular
economy which offer ample business opportunities to environmental engineers.
Today, the public acceptance and politics
in the society are crucial, in addition to engineering excellence, teamwork
spirits, communication skills, etc. Whilst environmental issues are common factors
among different engineering disciplines, WK believes Artificial Intelligence will
be blooming for rapid advancement in developing technologies for solution. Integration
is another necessary component to enhance the engineering industry, so HKIE has
the real advantage of offering integrated professional views based on our
engineering excellence.
WK thinks it is inherent that the general public
are not in close contact with engineers as compared with e.g. doctors, lawyers,
etc. As environmental industry is so diversified, more promotional activities
are encouraged in academic sectors to raise the public’s impression on the high
standard of engineering profession.
Engineers are critical in the post COVID-19
crisis, e.g. MiC technologies for quarantine buildings, IT technologies for visual
meetings, etc, which have been proven during the pandemic period. New
developments in logistics, touchless payment technologies, etc, have also contributed
to COVID-19 resilience. WK is optimistic that opportunities for engineers will
be continuous especially for Environmental Engineers.
EVD Website: http://ev.hkie.org.hk/
IG name: hkieevd
Facebook name: HKIE Environmental Division