The Alumni Affairs Office organised the alumni seminar titled “A Cashless Era: What You Need to Know About Digital Currencies” on 1 November 2023. Four professional speakers led both the on-site and online participants to explore the development of digital currencies, understanding the close relationship between these “intangible” assets and our daily lives.
The event featured Ms Jennifer Tan and Dr Albert Yip as speakers. Ms Tan, an Accounting graduate, currently serves as the Chief Executive of Alipay Financial Services (HK) Limited and the Executive Vice President, Strategy Development and Government Affairs, GBA, of Ant Group. She began by reviewing the application landscape of various media of exchange, highlighting the fact that the Octopus card, as a widely-used payment tool, has laid the foundation for a “cashless era” in Hong Kong. Driven by the recent surge in e-wallet usage, the future of mobile payments will be further shaped by the collective efforts of enterprises, the general public, as well as other stakeholders. Following Ms Tan’s presentation, Dr Yip, an Information Systems graduate and Chairman of Syndicate Capital Group, explained the concept and development of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). His presentation also included e-HKD, e-CNY and other examples, illustrating the maturing fintech ecosystem and the foreseeable realisation of a “cashless society”.
The panel discussion was moderated by Mr Darron Sun, an Information Systems graduate and President of The Computing Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Brian Kei, a DBA graduate and Professor of Practice (FinTech) at PolyU, also joined as one of the panellists. The audience actively posed questions online and offline, and engaged in exchanges with the four guests. They explored the opportunities and challenges of implementing digital currencies by discussing information security, industry regulations, financial infrastructure and other aspects.
The event attracted over 550 registrations and received positive feedback from the participants. We would also like to express our gratitude for all the valuable opinions, which will assist us in organising more content-rich sharing events that keep the alumni community abreast of the latest trends.
For more photos of the event, please refer to our Facebook post.
