Budget billions reflect Hong Kong’s determination to become hi-tech hub
- But spending is very much about the future, and how well city fares at achieving its objective will not be clear for a long time
Hong Kong’s bid to become Asia’s hub for innovation and technology has received an injection of funding in the latest budget. The funding is both substantial and welcome, and a sign the government is serious about its pledges to support the drive for hi-tech and research and development (R&D) supremacy in the region.
Supported by rule changes in 2018 by the Hong Kong stock exchange, the city has already quietly become the region’s leading capital-raising centre for companies in need of biotech funding, and the world’s second-biggest behind the United States. Its universities play host to some of the world’s leading minds for scholarly work and research in the sciences and medicine.
And once the breakthroughs are achieved, companies can tap into the manufacturing power of the Greater Bay Area development zone for production.
To that end, the government aims to build an ecosystem to harness our advantages and promote R&D so tech and innovation may thrive. The funding for the ecosystem was a core part of the budget announced by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Wednesday.
He earmarked HK$10 billion for a scheme aimed at supporting the development of life and health technology, AI and data science, new energy technology and advanced manufacturing. The government is prepared to match up to HK$200 million for enterprises in those sectors.
Another HK$2 billion was allocated to support research in a new health tech hub at the joint technology park with Shenzhen being built at the Lok Ma Chau Loop.
Some HK$3 billion was set aside to help local universities, research institutes and enterprises leverage the power of Cyberport’s AI Supercomputing Centre, the first phase of which is due to begin operation this year. Chan said the facility aimed to achieve a computing power of 3,000 petaflops – 1 petaflop is 1 quadrillion operations in 1 second – enabling the processing of about 10 billion images per hour, by 2026.
This year, Hong Kong also aims to establish a hub for research collaboration on third-generation semiconductors, bringing together universities, R&D centres and industry. The institute aims to better leverage R&D results by tapping into the manufacturing industry chain of the Greater Bay Area.
HK$24 billion investment boost for Hong Kong’s I&T sector to drive tech economy
As with any government funding for infrastructure, the spending is very much about the future – and how well Hong Kong fares at achieving the objective will not be clear for a long time. Business leaders have said for years that the city has the potential to become the leading hub in Asia.
The seriousness of the latest proposals, and the considerable funding behind the initiatives, will hopefully one day turn that potential into reality.
