Graduated at CUHK, major in Biology, Mr. Lai furthered his postgraduate study in Australia in field ecology. After coming back to Hong Kong, he started his professional career in environmental consultancy and joined Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) as a Forestry Officer in 1995. In the early years of his career path in AFCD, he was responsible for the curation of the Hong Kong Herbarium and flora conservation, overseeing ecological assessments in the statutory EIA process, developing and managing country parks, marine parks and Hong Kong UNSECO Global Geopark. In recent years, Mr. Lai has focused on supporting the fisheries trade and promotion of sustainable fisheries, assisting the traditional fishermen to transform into modernised and sustainable mode of operations. Making best use of Hong Kong coastal resources, Mr. Lai is keen in developing modernised aquaculture operations that is compatible to the environment. The deep sea fish culture operation was introduced to Hong Kong a few years ago and its commercial operations in smaller scale are now under trial with the government support from technical and financial aspects. Mr. Lai is currently the Deputy Director of AFCD, responsible for both food and environment portfolio of the department.