Greater Bay Area could be Hong Kong’s ticket onto the tech innovation train

Ever since he took over as Hong Kong’s financial secretary in January 2017, Paul Chan Mo-po has allocated record amounts to boost Hong Kong’s innovation and technological development. In his budget for 2018-19, Chan set aside an additional HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion), in addition to the HK$10 billion he had reserved last year. 

Of the resources allocated, HK$20 billion will be spent on developing the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau loop; HK$10 billion for research in health care, artificial intelligence and robotics; HK$10 billion for research under the Innovation and Technology Fund; and HK$10 billion for enhancing research and incubation at the Science Park. 

The amounts represent a quantum leap in the resources Hong Kong devotes to technological development, even though Hong Kong still lags significantly behind Guangdong province and neighbour Shenzhen in the percentage of gross domestic product expended on research and development.

The generous support, albeit belatedly, is part of the national drive to boost “high quality”, tech-based growth across the country. The questions are not whether such efforts are too little, too late, but what is truly achievable within our city, and what benefits technological development can truly bring to the people of Hong Kong, within or outside our city.

In pushing Hong Kong’s tech development, we must be clear-headed about our weaknesses and strengths. First, Hong Kong cannot possibly be a base for research in core technologies, such as the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan, which legislators visited as part of their Greater Bay Area tour last weekend. The facility undertakes research in fundamental physics, which has a wide range of applications in structural biology, biotechnology, chemical and engineering materials, just to name a few.