Despite all the hype about the abundant and cheap pool of talent on the mainland, Hong Kong technology companies are cautious about setting up research and development (R&D) centres there.
Many companies do not find the payroll savings attractive enough to counterbalance the risk of intellectual property theft, according to participants at the Hong Kong pavilion at the China High-Tech Fair in Shenzhen.
'We moved our R&D facilities to the mainland two years ago but we moved back a year later because we found the level of management and technology is not as high as Hong Kong,' said Alan Chan of software developer Linux.
'We didn't save much on cost and management was very difficult.'
Company managers had communication problems with their Putonghua-speaking mainland staff and found local employees' work habits did not fit in with the company's requirements.
Above all, the company was concerned about losing commercial secrets.
