A brief and standard tour of Chengdu national high-technology zone has become a source of inspiration for Richard Li Tzar-kai, chief executive of Pacific Century CyberWorks, particularly when he compared it with his brainchild, the Cyber-Port.
After an hour's tour of the hi-tech zone, Mr Li said he was concerned that the Cyber-Port might not be attractive enough to foreign investors unless more incentives were offered.
Although the zone was unlikely to be a direct rival of Cyper-Port, Mr Li was concerned about Cyber-Port's competitiveness.
'They have an extensive package of incentives. For example, new companies enjoy exemptions in land lease and they can even have the offices [built] for free. Some of these are just impossible for Hong Kong.
'They started after the Cyber-Port [was proposed]. Now they have already made some progress . . . Some companies in the zone were listed on the stock market. There is much we can learn from the zone.'
When asked if he would consider investing in the zone, Mr Li said: 'That is not what is in mind at the moment. On the contrary, I am thinking we should offer more incentives to investors in the Cyber-Port to make it attractive to foreign investors.'