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Chung Wing-hin wants to create a rainbow over Hong Kong through German start-ups. Photo: AFP

Invest Hong Kong man in Berlin aims to attract German start-ups to the city

Hong Kong plans to attract start-ups from Berlin in an attempt to boost the city’s entrepreneurial culture and creative economy.

InvestHK will tap the vibrant Berlin start-up scene in a global campaign to be formally launched early next year.

Chung Wing-hin, InvestHK’s head of investment promotion in Berlin, told the South China Morning Post that Hong Kong’s start-up scene was growing and the new campaign would attract new firms in Berlin and the rest of the world that could benefit the city.

He said Hong Kong’s vibrant investment opportunities, an international and business-friendly environment, its rule of law and protection of intellectual property were important attractions for overseas start-ups eager to expand into the mainland and the rest of Asia.

Chung added that Hong Kong’s proximity to the mainland, particularly factories and manufacturers located in the south, was a bonus for hardware start-ups.

“Hong Kong was the centre for entrepreneurs in our history,” said Chung, referring to the mainland migrants who came to Hong Kong to set up their own businesses around the middle of the last century.

In Berlin, people create their own jobs and start their own business when there are no jobs
InvestHK's Chung Wing-hin

As the market became saturated with large corporations, this entrepreneurial spirit was replaced with a “play safe” belief, he said.

“People do not want to take risks. Young people have been told to follow the traditional path, get a degree [from university] and then get a good job,” Chung said.

But the most successful entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs, were school dropouts, he said, and such an entrepreneurial spirit could be found in Berlin.

Berlin has had a high unemployment rate since reunification in 1990. According to European Commission statistics, 11.3 per cent of its residents were out of work in January this year, compared with an unemployment rate of 7 per cent for Germany as a whole.

“In Berlin, people create their own jobs and start their own business when there are no jobs. It’s the path to entrepreneurship,” Chung said. “It is important to spread the culture. Failure should not be a stigma any more.”

Hong Kong has been riding the global start-up trend by promoting itself overseas as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.

In 2013, InvestHK launched a programme called StartmeupHK Venture – a global contest bringing start-ups from all over the world to compete for awards that will help boost their business in Hong Kong. Out of the 384 entries in that year, 12 came from Germany. Last year, the number of entries rose to 550, but just four came from Germany. That may change after the InvestHK campaign gets under way.

 

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