The Hong Kong Monetary Authority says more than 30 leaders of global financial institutions will attend a summit it plans to host here in just over a month from now. As Joanne Wong reports, the long-planned event is intended to show the SAR "is back" and open after more than two years of quarantine and social distancing:

Former Exco convenor, Bernard Chan, says the upcoming finance summit by the Monetary Authority is long overdue but Hong Kong is still "far from normality" as it emerges from the pandemic. He said for a full return to normality, the three days of medical surveillance and PCR tests for arrivals needed to be scrapped, but he was optimistic this was just months away. Chan chairs the M+ Museum, which will be the venue for a welcoming dinner for the event. He told Samantha Butler that the summit attendees would be "blown away" when they saw Hong Kong's art offerings:

Civil service minister Ingrid Yeung says she does not expect many children aged between five and 11 to be barred from entering regulated places, such as restaurants, when the vaccine pass requirement is extended to include them. From Friday, children belonging to this age group will be required to have received at least one jab to enter premises that scan a person's vaccine pass. Damon Pang reports:

Despite the extended vaccine pass, around 50,000 children in the five-to-11 age group are still not vaccinated. RTHK’s Natale Ching spoke to one family who staunchly refuse to get Covid vaccinations despite the inconvenience. She also spoke to an expert about why some people remained so vaccine-hesitant, nearly three years into the pandemic:

Representatives of the education industry have called on officials to reduce the size of school classes and to attract more mainland students to study in Hong Kong. They say these are ways to counter the impact of the reduction in local student numbers. Violet Wong reports:

The chairman of the Education Policy Concern Group says the declining local student population is a "horrible situation" that is only going to get worse. Mervyn Cheung predicted a double-digit decline in school enrolment ahead, due to the ageing population and the pandemic keeping away students from the mainland and Southeast Asia. He said the government should freeze class numbers and manpower for local schools, and wait and see if students return as Covid restrictions ease. He also told Ben Tse that authorities should do more to promote Hong Kong as an international education hub:

Hong Kong's sole beverage carton recycler has been granted another six months to remain at its location, following a tenancy dispute. The government-backed Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation did not renew its lease at the Yuen Long Industrial Estate because it is to be developed into a high-tech park. Now, the landlord has granted Mil Mill a grace period to stay until the end of June 2023. The recycling firm said the decision came out of nowhere. Frank Yung reports:

Self-exiled politician, Ted Hui, has been sentenced in absentia to three-and-a-half years in prison for jumping bail. The former Democratic lawmaker fled Hong Kong nearly two years ago and is now in Australia. Maggie Ho reports:

President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have hailed half-a-century of diplomatic relations between their countries. The president said in a message that 50 years ago, Beijing and Tokyo had the foresight to make the decision to normalise bilateral ties, opening a new chapter in their relations. Wendy Wong reports: