New chairman at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park looks to build up management and spruce up facilities

Sunny Chai to spend big from HK$50 billion government injection, intended to help Pak Shek Kok site spearhead city’s IT ambitions

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Sunny Chai replaced Fanny Law at the corporation in July. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 6:59pm, 15 Aug 2018Updated: 11:35pm, 15 Aug 2018

The new chairman of Hong Kong’s IT hub has prioritised building “a solidified management team” for a number of huge projects on its plate, while spending 30 per cent of HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) in government cash refurbishing its shabby facilities.

Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu said on Wednesday that building the team was the No 1 priority following a shake-up in which eight professionals from big data, biotechnology, academia and venture capital joined the board of the government-owned Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.

Chai replaced Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun at the head of the corporation on July 1.

He said the park at Pak Shek Kok would carefully position itself in the “Greater Bay Area”, after a Hong Kong government grant of HK$50 billion to spearhead the city’s IT ambitions. The Greater Bay Area is the central government’s plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province into an innovation and technology hub.

“Personnel stability is my No 1 priority, which is like sailing in a race that needs a team of sailors with different roles and every role is important no matter how small it is,” Chai said.

Chai is no stranger to the park, having been a board member for four years. He said he would give managers as much space to work as possible.