Hong Kong's white elephants? Jury still out on Cyberport and Science Park

Cyberport and Science Park are fraternal twins of sorts. Both government initiatives were conceived in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis to encourage ventures in fast-growing fields of innovation from biotech to information technology - a way to diversify and shift Hong Kong away from its reliance on real estate and financial services.

Both are massive projects underpinned by property development, one in Pok Fu Lam and the other just off the Tolo highway in Pak Shek Kok. Both have, at various times, been labelled white elephants.

Now, 12 years after the two facilities opened, they are starting to yield some results.

At Cyberport, home-grown start-ups attracting attention include GoGoVan, which links freelance truck drivers with people who need goods delivered, and Coachbase, a developer of digital tools for sports teams. Then there's AfterShip, which operates a global package tracking system for online retailers.

Yet a weekday visit to Cyberport in Pok Fu Lam still has a surreal feel. It is a thoroughly modern complex, filled with gleaming glass and LCD screens, but there are few people in its offices and public areas. To critics (and there have been many from the moment the government awarded development of its prime waterfront site to PCCW without tender), such scenes only reinforce views that Cyberport was a misguided bid to springboard the city to the forefront of information technology in Asia by building a facility for related businesses.

IT sector legislator Charles Peter Mok, who was one of the advising consultants, says the project was hampered by its bad reputation, describing it as an "illegitimate child".

"That stigma had to do with the way the project development was given to PCCW without tender. But that doesn't mean that Cyberport was not doing its job of being a project to support the development of the IT industry. Quite the contrary," he says.