American investment bank Hambrecht & Quist Asia Pacific plans to lure top mainland and Taiwanese engineers working in the United States to help build the US$1.2 billion Silicon Harbour project.
Hambrecht believes such engineers will be a key driving force to make a success of the project to build a manufacturing base for high-value microchips which was announced last week.
'Technical people are the most important ingredient for the hi-tech industry and Hong Kong has these talented people available from the US,' said Hambrecht chairman Hsu Ta-lin.
Mr Hsu put the number of ethnic Chinese engineers working in the US at between 100,000 and 200,000.
'Being a Chinese, it is almost a basic instinct that they want to go home. Hong Kong will become an ideal place to attract these talented people,' he said.
He said the availability of mainland and Taiwanese engineers from the US together with Hong Kong's proximity to the mainland's rapidly growing market were contributing factors in Hambrecht's decision to site Silicon Harbour in Hong Kong.
Mr Hsu, who has been helping the Taiwanese Government establish a technology park, said Hong Kong was undergoing a brain drain which Taiwan had been through 20 to 30 years ago.
