Sexual harassment remains a major barrier to gender equality, especially in the workplace, the discrimination watchdog says.

Raising the existing Old Age Living Allowance is a more politically efficient option than setting up a universal pension scheme to provide for the city's elderly, a former senior official says.

Entrepreneurs are the life blood of Hong Kong's economy and their contribution to keeping the city globally competitive must be properly recognised, according to the sponsor of a major new awards programme organised by the South China Morning Post.

High property prices and inadequate infrastructure were more serious threats to Hong Kong's competitiveness than Occupy Central, speakers at the SCMP's Redefining Hong Kong debate said yesterday.

A prominent political economist has put forward a new compensation scheme for villagers displaced by development.

Luxury retailers are the last bastion against the surge of e-commerce, thanks to the assumption that going digital dilutes the DNA of a high-end brand.

Hong Kong has the basic wiring but needs to make better connections if it wants to be a global technology centre, industry experts said yesterday at the South China Morning Post's Redefining Hong Kong panel discussion.

Hong Kong's capital market is set to embrace a new breed of Chinese issuers that have left the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange for a listing in the city, as a more favourable valuation of shares and the depth of liquidity have lured them back home.

The West Kowloon arts hub is appointing a chief operating officer to develop its commercial and residential space. Cultural facilities will take up 35 to 40 per cent of the gross floor area of the development.

Patrons will be taking their seats - at least some of them - at the West Kowloon Cultural District next year after 10 years of planning and angst. Part of the development designed by Norman Foster is set to open next year, as is an arts pavilion on the waterfront for small exhibitions and events.

Hong Kong's Asian minorities are the poorest of the poor, with needs that are often different from the rest of the population, ethnic minority rights advocate Fermi Wong Wai-fun said.

Education is the long-term key to tackling poverty in Hong Kong but immediate efforts must be made by the government to treat welfare as an entitlement rather than a handout.

How one of the world's most prosperous cities manages to let nearly a fifth of its population exist in poverty is a question that bothers many. Bad policies contribute to Hong Kong's widespread poverty and the government seems unwilling to tackle the issue, according to a panel of speakers at the year's final "Redefining Hong Kong'' discussion, hosted by the South China Morning Post.

The next generation of women who want to sit on company boards ought to aim high and start positioning themselves for those roles now by networking and approaching headhunters, said senior female executives at the South China Morning Post's Women of Our Time conference yesterday.

As the competition to capture the spending of China's tourists grows globally, Hong Kong should focus on elevating its service standards and offering one-of-a-kind experiences rather than just being a giant retail outlet, a panel of luxury experts said yesterday.

Leading figures from both the Beijing-loyalist and pan-democratic political camps joined the latest of the Post's Redefining Hong Kong seminar series at the JW Marriott hotel. Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, former chief secretary and lawmaker Anson Chan Fang On-sang, businessman David Tang and Post columnist Alice Wu joined moderator and former Executive Council convenor Ronald Arculli to discuss 'Passage to 2017 - The Next Milestone of One Country, Two Systems'. Their debate covered everything from universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive election to the future role of political parties in Hong Kong's governance.

Hong Kong cannot afford to stand still on political reform, universal suffrage must be in place by 2017 – this is the consensus of a panel discussion by political heavyweights in the South China Morning Post’s "Redefining Hong Kong" debate.

More Hongkongers today are anxious about the mainland's environmental problems and fret about landfill space in the city than 12 years ago, a survey shows.

Financial reforms in Shenzhen's Qianhai special economic zone could spur a surge in yuan deposits in Hong Kong, pushing them to 30 per cent of the city's deposit base from the current 10 per cent, HSBC Hong Kong chief executive Anita Fung said yesterday.

Hong Kong must leverage its international reach if it is to avoid being marginalised by the mainland's march towards full financial sector liberalisation and further integration into the global monetary system, according to a panel of experts assembled by the South China Morning Post.