AM Edition: Here are the top 10 politics articles on LiveNews.co.nz for September 21, 2026 – Full Text
1. Greenpeace – Thirty Five thousand march in Auckland against Conservation Amendment Bill
September 20, 2026
Source: Greenpeace Aotearoa and Forest & Bird
Thirty Five thousand have gathered in Auckland’s Albert Park this afternoon to march down Queen Street to protest the Government’s controversial Conservation Amendment Bill.
Speaking from the protest, Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director Dr Russel Norman said, “We are part of nature, not separate from it. An attack on nature is an attack on all of us. It needs to stop.”
“If Luxon wants a fight over conservation land, he has one. This huge turnout today shows people are not prepared to stand by while a government tries to rewrite conservation law to make those places easier to exploit.”
“Today’s March for Nature is an unmistakable warning to the Coalition Government. Luxon should look at the thousands of people filling Auckland’s streets today and read the room. Bin the Bill, keep your hands off conservation land, and leave it protected for generations to come.”
Forest & Bird’s Richard Capie, also speaking from the protest, said “Today’s march shows just how deeply people care about our unique creatures and incredible wild places. Nature brings New Zealanders together – there is no more powerful unifying force in Aotearoa than te taiao.
“The message to every political party from the people of New Zealand is clear: if you stand up for nature, we will stand with you. But if you sell off our conservation land, weaken environmental protections, or put short-term profit ahead of our future, we will not stand by and let it happen.”
Other speakers included Augusta Macassey-Piccard of Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki, Gabrielle Brayne of Anti-War Aotearoa, Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i (Fili) of Aotearoa Climate Action Network, and Māori activist Mike Smith.
Norman says, “Conservation land is part of who we are in Aotearoa. But the Conservation Amendment Bill would open the door to more mining, more commercial exploitation and degradation of the wildlife and places we all love.
“Today, thousands of people from all walks of life have come together to say that we will not stand for this. Together, we will fight this rotten Bill every step of the way until it is dead and buried.”
The protest, organised by Greenpeace Aotearoa and Forest & Bird, is backed by over 30 civil society groups, including unions, environmental charities, scientific societies, ratepayer associations and outdoor recreation groups. They include the PSA, NZEI and Unite Union, the NZ Botanical Society, Environmental Law Initiative, Mindful Money, and Athletes for Nature.
Capie says, “Aotearoa New Zealand – our mountains, oceans, rivers, forests, and landscapes – are like nowhere else on earth. They are home to iconic native species that exist only here. New Zealanders are rightly incredibly proud of te taiao and we share a deep sense of aroha for the environment. Conservation land, our wildlife and wild places, are taonga, a treasure. They must be looked after for future generations.
“So, when these places are put at risk, New Zealanders stand up and say no. That is the message I’ve heard over and over again today – protect te taiao – hands off our conservation land.”
The march will leave Albert Park at 1:30pm and travel down Queen Street, before arriving in Te Komitititanga Square. Greenpeace and Forest & Bird are urging participants to enrol to vote, with the election in seven weeks.
Greenpeace – Updated numbers: 35k marched for nature
Source: Greenpeace Aotearoa
More than 35 thousand people joined today’s march for nature, to demand that the Government scrap the Conservation Amendment Bill.
The march was organised by Greenpeace and Forest & Bird, who are particularly concerned that the Bill will allow commercial exploitation of conservation land.
Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director Russel Norman says “If Luxon wants a fight over conservation land, he has one. This huge turnout today shows people are not prepared to stand by while a government tries to rewrite conservation law to make those places easier to exploit.”
Forest & Bird Group Manager Policy & Advocacy Richard Capie says “The message to every political party from the people of New Zealand is clear: if you stand up for nature, we will stand with you. But if you sell off our conservation land, weaken environmental protections, or put short-term profit ahead of our future, we will not stand by and let it happen.”
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2. NZ Professionals Set to Benefit as Surging Cook Islands Finance Sector Creates Dozens of Roles – Report
September 17, 2026
Source: Southpac Group
New Zealand lawyers, accountants and compliance specialists are set to benefit from rapid growth in the Cook Islands financial services export sector, where new international trust registrations have risen almost 90 percent in two years, creating a growing shortage of skilled workers.
Industry experts say the expansion could also create opportunities for New Zealand fintech and regulatory-technology firms providing trust administration, compliance, identity verification, cybersecurity and international payment solutions.
A new Cook Islands Government report shows financial and insurance services contributed more than NZ$48 million to the economy in 2024/25, up around 27 percent from NZ$38 million in 2019/20.1
The sector now accounts for 8.54 percent of real GDP, up from 8.32 percent the previous year.
New international trust registrations rose 42 percent in the past year to a record 433, almost 90 percent above the level recorded two years earlier.
The surging sector is helping diversify the tourism-reliant nation through higher-value, low-environmental-impact services that can operate remotely during disruptions to international travel.
The growth is being driven in part by international demand for Cook Islands asset protection trusts. The jurisdiction has developed a global reputation for its asset protection legislation, which has been in place for more than four decades.
Individual providers administer billions of dollars in client assets through international trust structures, much of it for North American clients, with the Government report showing approximately 85 percent of licensed trustee company revenue comes from US clients, primarily through asset protection structures.
Tauranga-based financial services firm Southpac Group, which specialises in international asset protection and trust administration, reports approximately US$4 billion under administration across its international operations.
Southpac Group CEO Mike Arand says demand is being supported by heightened concern about litigation and professional and business risks in North America.
The number of established roles across the wider financial sector increased from 257 in 2020 to 325 in 2025, a rise of 68 roles or approximately 26 percent.
The sector currently has 299 filled positions, with dozens of roles remaining vacant across legal, accounting, trust administration, compliance and technology functions.
Arand says New Zealand is well placed to help meet the demand.
“The jurisdiction has developed a global reputation for its asset protection trust legislation and is now administering billions of dollars in assets for international clients.
“Financial services contribute more than twice as much to the Cook Islands economy as agriculture, fishing and construction combined.
“Continued growth will depend on access to highly skilled professionals. New Zealand is an obvious source of that expertise because of the close legal, economic and constitutional relationship between the two countries.”
Arand says the opportunity extends beyond supplying professional expertise.
“As the Cook Islands industry expands, it will require more sophisticated systems for trust administration, regulatory compliance, identity verification, cybersecurity, payments and international client servicing.”
Southpac Group lawyer and director of business development Matthew Smith says the rise in trust registrations reflects growing international awareness of the need to protect personal wealth before disputes arise.
“We are seeing more business owners and professionals consider asset protection as part of their broader risk-management and succession planning rather than waiting until a legal claim emerges.
“The Cook Islands has a long-established legal framework, but the industry supporting it must continue investing in specialist people, compliance systems and technology as the number and complexity of international structures grow.”
The Cook Islands is self-governing in free association with New Zealand, uses the New Zealand dollar and its people hold New Zealand citizenship.
New Zealand is also home to a substantially larger Cook Islands population than the islands themselves, providing a potential pool of professionals who could return home, work remotely or support Cook Islands firms from New Zealand.
Smith says the concentration of trustee company revenue in the United States has made North American wealth an important driver of the Cook Islands financial services economy.
He says the jurisdiction’s established legal framework and four-decade track record have helped it build credibility among US lawyers, wealth advisers, business owners and professionals.
“The United States has driven much of the sector’s recent growth and will remain its most important market.
“As demand increases, the Cook Islands will need to ensure its legal, regulatory and technology infrastructure continues to meet the expectations of increasingly sophisticated international clients.”
Arand says attracting more international financial services and technology businesses could further expand local employment.
“The next phase is not only about registering more trusts. It is about attracting technology, expertise and investment that deepen the industry’s presence in the Cook Islands.
“The opportunity now is to strengthen its links with New Zealand and ensure its workforce, training systems, regulation and technology develop at the same pace as international demand.”
Asset protection trusts are intended for lawful planning before claims or disputes arise and do not override tax, criminal, insolvency or disclosure obligations.
Cook Islands Financial Services Development Authority, Annual Report 2024-2025, published online in May 2026.
https://cookislandsfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2024-2025-Annual-Report-_online2.pdf
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3. June GDP figures show there is a long way to go before working people benefit from growth again
September 17, 2026
Source: NZCTU
“The economy grew 0.2 percent in the June quarter, but there is a long way to go before we have dug ourselves out of the hole we have sunk into under this Government”, says NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Sandra Grey.
“GDP per capita basis is still 1.5 percent below where it was three years ago”, says Grey.
“Growth has been weaker in New Zealand than our peer countries, Australia, the UK, and the US all growing at twice the rate that we did in the June quarter, and the Euro Area growing at thrice the rate”, says Grey.
“There was some growth in construction, which is welcome. But this industry has taken an absolute hammering over the past three years. Compared to the same quarter three years ago, construction output is down almost 10 percent”, says Grey.
“Working families have been struggling with the rising cost of living and job insecurity over recent years and this will remain the case over the next year. This has been restricting consumer spending”, says Grey.
Household spending on durable goods is still lower than it was in the June 2023 quarter and spending on non-durable goods is flat.
“The growth that we have seen has not been shared evenly. The broad measure of business profits has grown much faster than employee compensation”, says Grey.
Annual average growth in operating surplus and mixed income was 7.4 percent while compensation of employees grew just 2.7 percent.
“We have seen a drop in the labour income share over this government’s term. This indicates that more of the economic pie has been going towards business”, says Grey.
“The GDP results should be read alongside the recent employment, wage, and inflation data”, says Grey.
Unemployment has risen to 5.6 percent, and underutilisation to 13.8 percent. Long-term unemployment is up 150 percent since 2023, with around 67,000 Kiwis unemployed for 6 months of longer in the June quarter. Māori and Pasifika communities are experiencing unemployment rates of over 10 percent.
The weak job market is leading to lower wage growth. Annual wage growth for the June quarter was 2 percent on the labour cost index measure and 2.8 percent on the average hourly wages measure. But inflation was 4.1 percent for the same period, meaning wages have been going backwards.
“The job market is in free-fall and working Kiwis are paying the price”, says Grey.
“We’ve had three years of barely any growth, falling real incomes for many households, and rising unemployment and economic insecurity. The Luxon Government has manifestly failed to get New Zealand ‘back on track’,” says Grey.
“Christopher Luxon’s economic plan hasn’t worked. It hasn’t delivered economic growth. It hasn’t delivered a strong job market. It hasn’t delivered improved productivity or real wages. We need a different plan”, says Grey.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/17/june-gdp-figures-show-there-is-a-long-way-to-go-before-working-people-benefit-from-growth-again/
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4. Stop shifting health workers around and start planning for the whole health workforce
September 17, 2026
Source: Aged Care Association
The Government needs a workforce plan for the entire health system, rather than freezing recruitment in one part of the system and then scrambling to recruit thousands of nurses months later, says the Aged Care Association.
ACA Chief Executive Tracey Martin says reports that Health New Zealand is now recruiting around 2,300 nurses should be good news, but aged residential care providers are already seeing the consequences of recruitment that does not take account of the wider health workforce.
“Our members are telling us that nurses who applied for hospital positions as long as two years ago, subsequently found employment in aged residential care, and are now being contacted and offered hospital roles at salaries our providers simply cannot match.
“We have raised this directly with Te Whatu Ora in the past week.
“This is not about criticising nurses for taking those opportunities, and it is certainly not an argument that our hospitals don’t need nurses. They do.
“But shifting nurses from one part of the health system to another is not workforce planning.”
Martin says the current situation demonstrates the need for Government to plan for the health workforce as one interconnected system.
“We cannot freeze hiring, leave qualified nurses looking elsewhere for work, and then suddenly scramble to recruit thousands of people without considering where those nurses are now working and what happens to the services they leave behind.
“A nurse moving from aged residential care into a public hospital is an additional nurse on Te Whatu Ora’s books. They are not an additional nurse for New Zealand’s health system.
“And when that nurse leaves aged residential care, there can be very real consequences.”
Martin says registered nurse shortages can restrict an aged care facility’s ability to admit residents or provide higher levels of care.
“Some of the people waiting for those beds are sitting in public hospitals, medically ready for discharge but unable to leave until appropriate care is available.
“So if we recruit nurses out of aged residential care to increase hospital capacity but reduce aged care’s ability to accept hospital discharges in the process, we haven’t solved the problem. We’ve moved the bottleneck.”
Martin says the irony is that Health New Zealand’s own workforce planning responsibilities extend beyond the workforce it directly employs.
“Government policy talks about whole-of-system workforce planning and moving more care closer to home. That cannot happen if workforce planning effectively stops at the hospital door.
“Aged residential care employs around 35,000 New Zealanders. Our nurses and caregivers look after some of the oldest and most clinically complex people in the country. Yet too often aged residential care is treated like the ugly cousin sitting in the corner of health workforce planning, rather than as a critical partner in providing the continuum of care.”
Martin says the Aged Care Association has become tired of waiting for comprehensive workforce planning that properly includes aged residential care and has begun doing the work itself.
“We have started working with the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and E tū on workforce planning specifically for aged residential care.
“Employers and unions will not agree on everything, nor should anyone expect us to. But we do agree that New Zealand needs a sustainable aged care workforce and that we should be planning now for the nurses, caregivers and other workers we will need as our population ages.
“We would much rather be doing that as part of a properly coordinated national health workforce strategy, because hospitals, primary care, home and community support and aged residential care do not operate independently of each other.”
Martin says better workforce planning would also allow aged residential care to make a much greater contribution to reducing hospital pressure.
“With appropriate funding, workforce and contracting arrangements, our sector can provide more recovery and step-down care, more respite, support earlier hospital discharge and provide care for older New Zealanders closer to their families and communities.
“That is capacity New Zealand is going to need as our population ages.
“But Government cannot simultaneously expect aged residential care to take pressure off hospitals and treat our workforce as a recruitment pool when hospitals need more staff.
“We need to stop shifting shortages around the system and start planning for the workforce the whole health system needs.
“If we genuinely want older New Zealanders to receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time, close to home, then aged residential care has to be at the workforce planning table as an equal and essential part of New Zealand’s health system.”
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5. 2300 more hospital nurses? Yeah, nah Nicola Willis
September 17, 2026
Source: New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Claims by National deputy leader Nicola Willis that 2300 more hospital nurses will be hired by the end of this year have been revealed by Te Whatu Ora as more smoke and mirrors on nursing numbers from the Government, NZNO says.
Nicola Willis told RNZ yesterday that 2300 nurses are being recruited “right now” and would be working in hospitals by Christmas.
However, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO President Anne Daniels says the numbers don’t stack up.
Te Whatu Ora chief nurse Nadine Gray told RNZ today that just over 300 nurses have been recently hired and are going through the recruitment process and 1800 graduates will be hired. Te Whatu Ora is currently advertising for another 300 odd nursing roles
“National is trying to dress business up as usual recruitment as a success story. With a current workforce to March 2026 of 29,458 FTE nursing positions, this is just replacing attrition, not growing the workforce. Nursing numbers have actually fallen by 120 FTE since March 2025.
“Te Whatu Ora has had a recruitment freeze. The Government has been keeping 1,300 nursing roles vacant over the past two years as a deliberate tactic to save millions of dollars,” Anne Daniels says.
“Up to 90% of nursing graduates used to be hired in our hospitals but despite these vacancies, just 45% of registered nursing graduates were matched to supported-entry roles at Te Whatu Ora after mid-year final exams.
“The Government has promised to hire 1800 graduates before the end of the government financial year, which is 30 June 2027. Is Te Whatu Ora now promising to move this recruitment forward?
“National also continually claims to have hired 2,100 more nurses, but we now know just 54 new nursing FTE has been added to the hospitals since they came to office.
“Nicola Willis says nurse retention is important and legislated culturally-safe nurse to patient ratios will make that happen.”
Anne Daniels says NZNO welcomes Labour’s policy to hire all nursing graduates, but it needs to turn around the third of students who drop out of training before completing their studies.
“Nursing students are living in cars and tents on their 12-week final placement. They are unable to support themselves for the three months they are doing full-time shift work and often away from their hometown and whānau support.
“If Labour is serious about helping new nurses, they need to pay them for this placement period, as nursing students in Australia are,” Anne Daniels says.
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6. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive takes to the airwaves to discuss his strategic vision for development under the city’s First Five-Year Plan
September 19, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Quizzed on various aspects of the HKSAR Government’s new blueprint for economic and social development, Mr Lee said the inaugural Five-Year Plan set out five main objectives for Hong Kong: better livelihoods for all; breakthroughs in economic development; expanding global competitiveness and influence; faster development of the Northern Metropolis; and to better serve the country.
On expanding global competitiveness, Mr Lee said the Government would make good use of its international networks.
“The strength of Hong Kong is its international status, and we have been emphasising on how we ensure the internationalism or the ‘internationalness’ of Hong Kong. We are expanding to cover every part of the world where we can reach,” Mr Lee said, noting that the Government had offices, including Economic and Trade Offices, and the offices of Invest Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, in countries around the world. “I’m very serious about expanding our network.”
Since taking office four years ago, Mr Lee has led delegation visits to regions, including ASEAN Member States, the Middle East, and recently Central Asia. “And my colleagues really go more often to different parts of the world, so for South Africa, and also Kenya and these are the very popular African places that my colleagues go to visit,” he added.
To boost Hong Kong’s influence in overseas markets, Mr Lee highlighted the example of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed).
“We are very proud to have the headquarters of IOMed set up in Hong Kong, because this is an organisation which is of United Nations status,” Mr Lee said. He added that an international office would be set up in Hong Kong under the global network of corruption prevention authorities. “Hong Kong is an international city, which not just is very good at doing business, but is exercising its responsibility as a global participator, and also, we really can contribute.”
“And this is also very important, because it just means how, in different areas, Hong Kong is doing very well, and also very connected to the world. And not just being a member, but being a contributor, being really a driver, and we want to share our good experiences, and also learn from other experiences.”
The First Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address placed strong focus on speeding up the development of the Northern Metropolis (NM) project, so as to boost long-term economic development, improve people’s livelihoods and help the city to further integrate into overall national development.
“The Northern Metropolis represents about one third of our geographical area. So it is a big piece of land that gives us new opportunities. An opportunity to upgrade ourselves, both from the accommodation angle as well as development angle,” Mr Lee said.
Beyond the city’s core economic strengths such as finance, shipping and trade, Mr Lee said the NM would provide room for diversifying local industries, creating new jobs and a brighter future as more development opportunities emerge from different kinds of industries as well as closer alignment with national development.
“The NM is actually mentioned in our country’s 15th Five-Year Plan. That means it is not just a Hong Kong development, it has been elevated as a state-driven project. And with the elevation of position, we will have to work hard. And I am sure that the Central Government will also help us to ensure that this will be a success story.
“And so, doing the Five-Year Plan has this advantage. We will capitalise on all the opportunities that the state can give us. At the same time, we will remain very fully connected to the international world. So we have the beauty of both worlds.”
Asked about Hong Kong’s approach to adopting artificial intelligence (AI), Mr Lee stressed the need to take advantage of the opportunities brought by AI, while also protecting against the risks of AI, in areas such as crime, fraud, sexual abuse and potential negative impacts on younger people.
“Last year, we talk very much about how we should benefit from the application of AI, how it will do things faster, and how it will also do things more correctly,” Mr Lee said.
“So while we develop and ensure people understand and use it, we also need to tell everybody the potential risks that it will bring.”
Mr Lee said the Government would create a post of Commissioner for AI, with a mandate that he is “the chief for the whole government, in terms of AI. It means setting the policy. It means coordinating resources, identify problems for them, setting the best practices, issuing guidelines. And also, very importantly, is developing AI for the whole of government with a view to, after we have developed our experience, let the world also learn from these experiences.”
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Hashtag: #HongKong #PolicyAddress #First5YearPlan #IOMed #NorthernMetropolis
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7. Huawei Cloud Rolls Out Enterprise AI Products Across the Board, Building an Open Agentic Cloud
September 18, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Dr. Peter Zhou, Director of the Board at Huawei and CEO of Huawei Cloud, delivering the keynote
Building Agentic Infra for agents
Dr. Peter Zhou also highlighted that in the agentic era, infrastructure no longer simply exists to provide compute. Instead, its purpose has expanded to making every token more efficient, coordinating general and AI compute, enabling models to keep learning, and, more importantly, running agents securely and reliably within real production environments. Huawei Cloud has defined Agentic Infra, a new paradigm around efficient tokens, enhanced memory, unified general & AI scheduling, and secure autonomy. To date, Agentic Infra has served over 3,500 customers.
- The latest AICS is built on a five-level fast recovery mechanism with full-chain observability. It supports over 40 days of stable training on cloud and is capable of fault recovery within 10 minutes. Furthermore, supported by coordinated optimization across scheduling, cache, and algorithms, it delivers 20% higher token throughput than the previous generation of compute service. The latest AICS will be commercially available in China on September 30 and in markets outside China on November 30.
- The Context Memory Storage (CMS) solution addresses the needs of long-horizon agent tasks for memory capacity and access efficiency. It provides a petabyte-scale memory space, twice the storage capacity of comparable industry products, and supports high-speed terabyte-scale memory reads with 50% higher performance than industry peers.
- Agentic MaaS brings together diverse models, enabling developers to invoke state-of-the-art (SOTA) models from leading providers with just one click and no deployment required. At the event, MiniMax demonstrated its advanced multimodal model, which, combined with Huawei Cloud, delivers open, cutting-edge multimodal capabilities.
Building an enterprise-grade agent platform to help enterprises develop and use agents effectively
Huawei Cloud is advancing its enterprise-grade agent platform through a dual approach: commercial and open source. Built on AgentArts and its open-source edition openJiuwen, the platform opens up more than 5,000 general Model Context Protocol (MCP) assets and over 1,000 industry-specific MCP assets, making it easier for enterprises to develop, use, and manage agents. To date, the platform has served more than 100 customers, including the Shenzhen Longgang District Government, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou Laboratory, the University of Science and Technology of China, Kingsoft Office, Sichuan Yingu Carbon Sink Renewable Resources Co., Ltd., Changsha Thunder Cloud Network Technology Co., Ltd., and KingMed Diagnostics. At the event, Kingsoft Office shared its implementation practices based on Huawei Cloud’s agent platform. By deeply integrating the agent platform with the WPS 365 Document Center and WPS Comate, Kingsoft Office has built vertical office agents that are now deployed across multiple industries, including finance and government.
Huawei Cloud has announced that AgentArts will be commercially available in markets outside China on December 30. To date, the openJiuwen open-source community has surpassed 50,000 stars and 3.29 million downloads. Together with Chinasoft International, iSoftStone Group, and Beiming Software, Huawei Cloud has launched partner commercial editions and shared a broad market space, helping partners thrive on Huawei Cloud’s silicon bedrock.
Advancing the Industry AI Foundry to accelerate AI adoption at scale across industries
Through the Industry AI Foundry, Huawei Cloud brings together assets such as industry scenarios, models, data, knowledge, and agents, turning industry know-how from isolated project experience into reusable industry capabilities. It has built five industry-specific zones — Smart Healthcare Zone, Embodied AI Zone, AI for Science (AI4S) Zone, Smart Manufacturing Zone, and Smart Finance Zone — with over 1,000 industry-specific assets and more than 1,000 deployed projects.
Two new zones have been launched within the Industry AI Foundry: Smart Government Zone and AI Hardware Zone. The Smart Government Zone has already brought together 24 founding partners, covering a range of scenarios such as government office operations, public services, urban governance, and industry development. The AI Hardware Zone has onboarded 15 core partners, covering more than 20 device types, including AI glasses, AI toys, and AI recording cards, along with over 10 scenario templates and more than 110 scenario skills.
From infrastructure and enterprise-grade agent platforms to industry ecosystems, Huawei Cloud is committed to building an open agentic cloud, with open infrastructure to power AI, an open platform to support enterprises in effectively developing and using agents, and an open industry ecosystem to accelerate AI adoption at scale. Ultimately, Huawei Cloud looks to move forward with customers and partners to build and grow together in the agentic era.
Themed Advancing the Agentic World, HUAWEI CONNECT 2026 will delve into AI across three dimensions: strategy, technology, and ecosystems. You can expect an in-depth look at our latest strategic initiatives, and we’ll also be unveiling our all-new digital and intelligent infrastructure products, scenario-specific solutions for industries, and development tools. The event will run from September 17 to 19 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center and Shanghai Expo Center. For more information, please visit HUAWEI CONNECT 2026 online at www.huawei.com/en/events/huaweiconnect
https://www.huawei.com/en/events/huaweiconnect
Hashtag: #Huawei
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8. Hong Kong Design Centre Welcomes New Policy Measures in the HKSAR’s First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2026-2030) and the Chief Executive’s 2026 Policy Address
September 17, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Supporting Enterprises to Go Global, Strengthening Talent Nurturing, Promoting Design Mega Events, and Reinforcing Hong Kong’s Positioning as an East-meets-West Centre for International Cultural Exchange
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 17 September 2026 – Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) welcomes the initiatives outlined in The First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026–2030) (The First Five-Year Plan) and the Chief Executive’s 2026 Policy Address, in particular to strengthen support for local design enterprises to go global, nurture design talent, promote design mega events in Hong Kong, and further reinforce Hong Kong’s pivotal role as an ‘East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange’.
Mr Steve Leung, Chairman of Hong Kong Design Centre, stated, ‘The current-term Government has achieved encouraging results in promoting the development of the design industry. One notable example is the Hong Kong Fashion Fest, an annual mega event launched in response to the Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address, which has gained increasing recognition from both the industry and the public, positioning Hong Kong as Asia’s leading fashion design hub. The First Five-Year Plan further enumerates a blueprint and vision for the city’s overall development. The 2026 Policy Address also aligns with and supports the objectives of The First Five-Year Plan by outlining concrete measures to drive development.’
Mr Steve Leung continued, ‘In response to the recommendations set out in the 2024 Policy Address, Hong Kong Design Centre has completed the restructuring of its organisation and functions, and has been progressively implementing a new development roadmap and direction. The Centre will fully align with The First Five-Year Plan and the Government’s initiatives, while actively integrating into and serving the overall national development. Through our various flagship programmes, we will continue to focus on helping design enterprises enhance their products and brand design capabilities and services, strengthening collaboration and interface between start-ups and Chinese Mainland enterprises, and driving Hong Kong’s design industry to go global for more business opportunities.’
To align with the Government’s efforts in implementing the ‘Bringing in and Going Global’ strategy, and to leverage its role as a platform for overseas expansion, HKDC launched its Outreach Programme last year, leading Hong Kong’s emerging designers to participate for the first time in Shanghai Fashion Week and the ‘Think Business, Think Hong Kong’ programme in Milan. This year, the programme will continue across Chinese Mainland and overseas cities, assisting Hong Kong’s design and creative talents to explore new markets, while leveraging Hong Kong’s role as a ‘super connector’ and ‘super value-adder’ in driving global design industry exchange.
Regarding nurturing of talents, HKDC continues to refine its incubation function. A new design incubation programme will be launched this year, assisting potential design enterprises in achieving high-quality development. The programme aims to incubate design start-ups established for one to three years, and provides in-depth support to enterprises established for three to 15 years. Together, these help design businesses across different disciplines and stages of development build a solid business foundation, drive brand upgrading and market expansion, thereby achieving sustainable growth and generating fresh momentum for Hong Kong’s creative economy.
In recent years, the Government has been vigorously promoting the hosting of world-class design mega events in Hong Kong. HKDC is honoured to expand its annual flagship event, Business of Design Week (BODW) in 2026/27, and re-brand BODW in the City as DESIGN@HKG. From November onwards, HKDC will collaborate with venue partners, international and local brands, and designers, to present a wider range of design programmes across different districts in Hong Kong. Through interactive experiences, the initiative will infuse local design culture and creative elements into every corner of the city, encouraging participation from corporate brands, tourists, and the general public. At the same time, leveraging BODW Summit to gather global creative leaders and entrepreneurs to Hong Kong for exchange, while connecting design-themed activities across the city, creates synergy and fosters greater creative atmosphere. The DX design hub in Sham Shui Po will continue to curate a diverse range of thematic design exhibitions, fashion retail and immersive design experiences, energising community creativity, fostering cross-sectoral exchange and commercial collaboration, and promoting the local economy and cultural tourism.
In support of the Government’s drive to reinforce Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s leading hub for fashion design and retail through the continued staging of the annual mega event, Hong Kong Fashion Fest, HKDC is delighted to have partnered for the first time with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), the organiser of Milan Fashion Week. Together, HKDC and CNMI co-curated the ‘Future Threads: Menswear’s New Waves Between Italy and Hong Kong’ Exhibition, one of the flagship programmes of this year’s Hong Kong Fashion Fest. Meanwhile, HKDC’s fashion initiative, Fashion Asia Hong Kong, presented its two highlight events ‘Fashion Challenges Forum’ and ’10 Asian Designers to Watch’ Exhibition’, bringing Asia’s avant-garde design to the international stage.
As a strategic partner of the HKSAR Government, HKDC is committed to promoting design and creative culture, with a view to reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as an international design hub. HKDC will continue to fully support the Government’s policy initiatives to foster the development of the cultural and creative industries in Hong Kong. Working hand in hand with the industry, we strive to thoroughly implement Hong Kong’s positioning as the ‘East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange’ under the National 15th Five-Year Plan.
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About Hong Kong Design Centre
The major programmes include Business of Design Week (BODW), bodw Future Lab, DFA Awards, Fashion Asia Hong Kong and DESIGN@HKG (formerly BODW In the City). Since 2024, we have also been operating the DX design hub in Sham Shui Po, dedicated to fostering emerging design talents and facilitating collaborations and exchanges in the design industry, as well as providing visitors an immersive experience through innovative exhibitions, fashion showcases and cultural events.
To achieve our goals we:
- Cultivate a culture of design
- Bridge stakeholders to opportunities that unleash the power of design
- Promote excellence in various design disciplines
About Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency
The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA), formerly known as Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) since 2009, was established in June 2024. CCIDA is a dedicated office under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) to provide one-stop services and support to the cultural and creative sectors with a mission to foster a conducive environment in Hong Kong to facilitate development of the arts, culture and creative sectors as industries. CCIDA’s strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, promoting cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration, promoting industrialisation of the arts, culture and creative sectors under the industry-oriented principle, and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community, thereby reinforcing Hong Kong as Asia’s creative capital and our positioning as the East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to some of HKDC’s activities/projects only, and does not otherwise take part in such funded activities/projects. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication and relevant materials/events (or by members of the project teams) are those of HKDC only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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9. Hong Kong sets out strategic vision for developing the Northern Metropolis and creating a global talent hub
September 18, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
“The NM will rise as an important strategic vehicle for advancing high‑quality post‑secondary education, integrating I&T (innovation and technology) and industry, and pooling international high‑calibre talent,” Mr Lee said. “It will become a major platform for Hong Kong’s deepening engagement with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and integration into and serving the overall national development.”
To foster the synergistic development of education, technology and talent, the HKSAR Government will take forward the establishment of the Northern Metropolis University Town (NMUT), integrating the five elements of education, technology, industry, talent and quality living environment.
Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary for Administration, Chan Kwok-ki said the NMUT will comprise three university towns (San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling) with their combined campus areas covering about 300 hectares.
“Together with the surrounding technology areas, industry areas and living community areas, the overall planned areas of the three university towns will exceed 1,000 hectares,” Mr Chan said. “While each of the three university towns has its own strategic focus, their shared goal is to expand and strengthen Hong Kong’s education and research capabilities, connecting them with industry chains, supply networks, and markets locally and across the GBA to inject strong impetus into the city’s growth.”
The first building (Building 1 of the Loop Hong Kong Park) is scheduled for completion by the end of this year, and will be positioned as the flagship project for launching of the NMUT.
To dovetail with the development of the NMUT, and raise Hong Kong’s scientific research capabilities, the HKSAR Government will support the capacity expansion and enhancement of post‑secondary education. For instance, starting from the 2027/28 academic year, the Government will gradually increase the annual quota of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme from 400 to 550 places by the 2029/30 academic year. Also, additional funding of $20 million will be provided each academic year to support knowledge transfer, thereby accelerating the transformation of innovative outcomes.
“The Northern Metropolis University Town not only supports the expansion and enhancement of Hong Kong’s post-secondary education, consolidating the city’s status as an international hub for post-secondary education, but also serves as a primary platform for Hong Kong to engage deeply in the Greater Bay Area, and integrate into and serve the overall national development,” Mr Chan said. “It also acts as a new engine to elevate Hong Kong’s international connectivity and reinforce its global competitive advantages.”
The NM accounts for about one third of Hong Kong’s total landmass and is projected to house about one third of the city’s population.
Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan sets a target of making available about 900 hectares of “spade-ready sites” from 2026-27 to 2030-2031. This would enable the provision of over 70,000 housing units and one million square metres of economic floor space.
Among the nine New Development Areas in the NM, construction works have begun at four of them (Kwu Tung North/Fanling North, Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen, Yuen Long South and San Tin Technopole and the Loop). A cumulative total of about 120 hectares of “spade‑ready sites” have been produced up to 2025‑26, while no less than 200 hectares of “spade‑ready sites” will be produced in 2026‑27 and 2027‑28.
Under the integrated strategy of urban-rural development, the NM will become an ideal place to live, work and travel. This, in turn, will help to attract talents and professionals to the area.
“Talent is the most valuable asset of any economy,” said Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary. “Indeed, competition among different economies is determined by the quality of the talent they have. It is critical that we have people with the qualifications, experience and expertise required to support our economic development.”
The 2026 Policy Address announced several initiatives to attract the necessary talent for Hong Kong’s development, and to promote talent exchange and training.
These include relaxing the requirements on extension of stay under the Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) for technology start‑up talent, and expanding the Immigration Facilitation Scheme for Invited Persons by extending its coverage from the current ASEAN Member States to also include countries and regions in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The HKSAR Government will also introduce a new visa category to allow non‑locals to participate in short‑term training programmes in Hong Kong, as recognised by bureaux and departments, advancing Hong Kong’s development into a regional training hub.
For the full document of Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan and related information, please visit the dedicated website (www.hk5yplan.gov.hk).
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10. Defence News – NZDF arrives in northern Cook Islands for construction, health and hydrography tasks
September 17, 2026
Source: New Zealand Defence Force
17 September 2026
The island of Penrhyn in the northern Cook Islands has welcomed a New Zealand Defence Force contingent for the annual Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief task Exercise Tropic Twilight.
At the request of the Cook Islands Government and supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than 50 personnel have deployed to Penrhyn via a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J aircraft to deliver construction, maintenance, health, and hydrography tasks for the communities of Penrhyn.
The New Zealand Army engineers from 25 Engineer Support Squadron, 2 Engineer Regiment, are working alongside five engineers from the Forces Armées en Nouvelle-Calédonie and one engineer from Vanuatu.
They will carry out a range of tasks on Penrhyn, including constructing and upgrading facilities at Omoka and Te Tautua Schools, upgrading the roof on the Omoka Market building, installing solar water stills and assisting local mechanics to service island plant machinery and vehicles.
Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) Littoral Warfare Unit HMNZS Matataua personnel will undertake hydrographic surveys of the navigational approaches, lagoon transit routes, and maritime infrastructure to provide updated data to the Cook Islands Government.
Health personnel from the both the RNZN and NZ Army will work with local medical staff to deliver services to the community.
Deputy Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, Brigadier Michael Bassingthwaighte, says the long-standing exercise continues the good work in the Cook Islands, following last year’s deployment to Ma’uke.
“For more than 25 years, Tropic Twilight has reinforced New Zealand’s commitment to the Pacific through practical support and enduring partnerships.
“We are proud to return to the Cook Islands this year, working alongside local communities and regional partners to deliver infrastructure, health and hydrographic projects that will leave a lasting positive impact for Penrhyn.”
Before transit to Penrhyn from the main island of Rarotonga, RNZN hydrographers took the opportunity to support the Cook Islands Government with a boat ramp survey at Avatiu Harbour.
NZ Army personnel also conducted cleaning and plumbing of the roof at Aotearoa Marae to enable water collection and helped the National Environment Service with their reusable plastics sustainability project.
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