RTHK：Video News RTHK.HK

A drone show will be held on Saturday to mark the Cheung Chau Bun Festival as well as Buddha’s Birthday, according to the Tourism Board.

The board said 1,000 drones will form patterns that resemble the iconic bun tower, Chinese flower plaques as well as other festive symbols.

The show will start at 8pm at the Wan Chai harbourfront and will last for around 10 minutes.

The Tourism Board added that there will be free ice creams from 6pm to 8pm that night near Wan Chai Ferry Pier.

Vladimir Putin began his fifth term on Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office.

Already in office for nearly a quarter-century, and the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, Putin’s new term doesn’t expire until 2030, when he will be constitutionally eligible to run again.

At the ceremony inside the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin placed his hand on the Russian Constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on.

At 71, Putin dominates the domestic political landscape.

On the international stage, he is locked in a confrontation with Western countries he accuses of using Ukraine as a vehicle to try to defeat and dismember Russia.

Putin in March won a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election from which two anti-war candidates were barred on technical grounds.

His best known opponent, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony a month earlier, and other leading critics are in jail or have been forced to flee abroad.

Putin first became Russian leader in late 1999, when he succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president. (Agencies)

As the city held a summit on global talent, the Hong Kong Talent Engage began a two-day career expo on Tuesday, attracting professionals from the mainland and foreign countries.

A job seeker from Brazil said he had worked in two mainland cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, for five years and had just come to Hong Kong through the Top Talent Pass Scheme.

He said the talent scheme makes it easier for people like him to work in the SAR.

"With this visa, I have this opportunity to come, and there's no limitations on what kinds of companies I can work for... This city is very business friendly. People have an entrepreneurial mind," he told RTHK.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme is one of several talent-admission schemes introduced by the SAR government, and even people who have not secured a job offer in Hong Kong can apply for it.

Another job seeker from Sichuan Province said she wanted to find a job in Hong Kong because of the labour market situation on the mainland.

"I could hardly get a [response from mainland companies]. I think I can find more opportunities here. I think I can improve my skills and have a better lifestyle here," she said.

A recruitment agency said support for workers was very important in order to retain them in a long run.

"I believe a lot of talent from outside of Hong Kong have got all skill sets that we lack or we're short of," said Eric Ng, chief strategy officer at the agency.

"I think all the corporations need to get ready so that they not only can attract them to come, but can retain the talent."

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor David Cardwell, echoed Labour Secretary Chris Sun's views that a focus should be on attracting talent from Southeast Asia.

"Some of the best talent, academic talent, are in Southeast Asia. The world just needs to adapt to that, to celebrate those talents, but Southeast Asia needs to make it easy for the world to do that as well," he said.

The CareerConnect Expo runs from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun on Tuesday said the government's efforts to attract talent to the city will focus on professionals from Southeast Asia and Europe.

Sun’s remark came after the government approved 180,000 talent importation scheme applications, with 120,000 people having already arrived in the SAR.

Speaking to reporters at the Global Talent Summit, Sun said most of the applicants were from the mainland.

But the labour minister said the government is committed to welcoming talent from all over the world, with a focus on Southeast Asia and Europe.

"We are very sure once we have let them know all the growth prospects, all the very exciting opportunities here in Hong Kong, a lot of the talents in Southeast Asia as well as in Europe, they will be thinking about Hong Kong and they will really give Hong Kong a good shot," he said.

Sun said the government expects around 7,000 people to attend the two-day summit at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping on Tuesday said the central government fully supports Hong Kong in attracting international entrepreneurs and talent to develop their ambitions in the SAR, as well as the integration of the Greater Bay Area into global innovation networks.

Speaking at the Global Talent Summit in Wan Chai, Wang said the nation has the largest talent resources pool in the world, with over 80 million technical professionals and over 200 million skilled workers.

The number of people who have received higher education exceeds 240 million, while China is ranked first in the world for the number of research and development personnel and patent applications, the minister added.

Wang said these things provide a solid foundation for the nation to support Hong Kong in building a “new highland” of international talent.

“The central government attaches great importance to Hong Kong's role in building human resources, and fully supports Hong Kong in conducting wider and closer exchanges and cooperation with other parts of the world to attract aspiring entrepreneurs to Hong Kong to develop their ambitions”, said Wang.

“We support building a high-level talent base in the Greater Bay Area, attracting global high-level innovation talent, businesses, as well as research institutions to the Greater Bay Area, as well as promoting the region to be integrated into the global innovation networks,” she added.

Pointing to China’s transition towards high-quality development, the minister also said the nation will concentrate on industrial modernisation and cultivate more high-quality, innovative professionals to develop “new quality productive forces”.

The nation will also push forward creating mechanisms and platforms to introduce global talent into the Greater Bay Area, which will provide new impetus for Hong Kong’s prosperity and integration into national development, she said.

Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that Hong Kong is the place to be for global talent, in part because the SAR has long been one of Asia's most liveable cities.

Speaking at a government-organised summit on talent, the CE said Hong Kong is the only city where "the global and China advantages" come together.

He added that other institutional strengths include prime business prospects because of the One Country, Two Systems principle, a low tax system as well as the free flow of information, capital, goods and people.

Lee said language is never a problem because English and Chinese are both official languages in the SAR, and Hong Kong will get even more multilingual as it thrives as a cultural hub where East meets West.

He noted that 40 percent of the territory is earmarked as country parks with a UNESCO geopark, endless hiking trails and stunning beaches.

"In Hong Kong, you don't just get world-class work opportunities, you get a satisfying life, too," Lee said in an opening speech at the summit.

"Yes, choosing to relocate to Hong Kong on your own or with your loved ones is a big decision. But I'm here to tell you, that this is the place where you can work hard, play hard and enjoy hard."

Lee said the central government's recent move to relax visa rules for Shanghai and Beijing businesspeople to come to Hong Kong will promote professional exchanges and reinforce the SAR's role as the country's international talent hub.

The CE also thanked senior officials from Beijing, particularly Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping, as well as those from Guangdong and Macau, for attending the summit and sharing their ideas.