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Innovation, Technology Should Boost Hong Kong Economy

Innovation, Technology Should Boost Hong Kong Economy
Innovation, Technology Should Boost Hong Kong Economy

Innovation and technology will become profitable in Hong Kong and drive the city’s bid to develop high-end manufacturing, according to two senior officials.

Both Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and Secretary for Innovation and Technology Nicholas Yang Wei-hsiung, writing on their separate official blogs on Sunday, said Hong Kong’s economy and the technology sector can benefit from Beijing’s “Greater Bay Area” project, which aims at turning the city and 10 neighbors in southern China into a financial and innovation hub rivaling Silicon Valley, Xinhua reported.

Hong Kong’s innovation and technology sector is set to get a significant boost from a slew of initiatives announced in Beijing on Wednesday, including the setting-up of two new state-backed laboratories in the city’s science park and a cross-border cooperation arrangement to be signed later.

The measures were unveiled after an unprecedented meeting in the Chinese capital attended by Vice-Premier Han Zheng and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Yang said the two new state-backed laboratories, together with foreign research institutions–such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–which would set foot in Hong Kong, showed researchers from mainland China and abroad “are full of confidence in Hong Kong’s I&T ecosystem”.

Chan also mentioned research institutes in his blog. But instead of focusing on the ones coming from across the border, he said he expects five local research and development bodies, set up by the government in 2006, to help Hong Kong “reindustrialize”.

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