Chief Executive John Lee on Thursday said the low-altitude economy will be a new growth engine, with a trial programme on drone operations set to help such activities take off and "fly steadily and far".

Under the Low-altitude Economy Regulatory Sandbox, pilot projects would be conducted to test airspace management, flight operations, and emergency response to support the use of unmanned aircraft. The initial phase, which involves 38 projects, is expected to begin next month.

"The low-altitude economy not only brings about a number of industries, but also has very extensive application scenarios and huge potential," Lee said at the sandbox's launch ceremony.

"In addition to improving urban management and business efficiency, it can also bring new experiences of smart living to the public and become a new growth engine for the economy."

The sandbox serves as a safe testing ground and an incubator for technologies to develop an environment suitable for the SAR in developing the low-altitude economy, Lee added.

Transport minister Mable Chan, for her part, said the first phase of the trial programme is expected to last for half a year and will test take-off and landing points of drones as well as their routes in places such as Cyberport and the Hong Kong Science Park.

The trial of the sandbox projects would help the authorities to "accumulate experience and data" in devising "comprehensive infrastructure support for the execution of the various low-altitude economic activities", according to the minister.

She also said the authorities are looking to introduce legislative amendments on regulating small unmanned aircraft to Legco in the second quarter of this year.

"We would like to increase the existing weight limit, so as to facilitate heavier and more sophisticated drones to be flying," Chan said.

"On the other hand, we would also introduce a special provision enabling the Director-General of Civil Aviation to allow trials of even more sophisticated and heavier low-altitude equipment, so as to facilitate our trial of the state-of-the-art models, including those models which can carry passengers."