What can Hong Kong learn from mainland China’s Fujian? Hi-tech tours for city’s lawmakers offer glimpse into model for data centre ambitions

City lawmakers conclude first official visit to province after touring supercomputing data centre, three industrial parks, and tech and biomedicine firms

Some in delegation say Hong Kong should set up data centres and different industries in Northern Metropolis mega project by adopting models used by Fujian cities

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The lawmakers visited a range of locations on their five-day trip to Fujian. Photo: Jess Ma

Published: 9:00am, 20 Jul 2023

Hong Kong should learn from cities in Fujian in its bid to become an international data centre, lawmakers have said as they wrapped up a five-day visit to the province positioned as mainland China’s southeastern tech powerhouse and supercomputing hub.

But some observers warned against “copycat development”, noting Hong Kong’s stricter privacy laws provided overseas businesses with confidence in data storage even though the legislation was often blamed for slowing the pace of digital transformation in the city.

Talk of cloud computing and big data was all the buzz as the delegation of 34 lawmakers concluded their first official visit to Fujian province on Wednesday, after touring a supercomputing data centre, three industrial parks, and a number of technology and biomedicine firms.

The lawmakers ended a five-day trip to Fujian on Wednesday. Photo: Handout

Some lawmakers were quick to conclude that Hong Kong should adopt the model of Fujian cities Fuzhou, the provincial capital, and Xiamen in setting up data centres and different industries in the Northern Metropolis mega development project.

After visiting the Digital Fujian Cloud Computing Data Centre in Fuzhou – a facility with a 40,000-server capacity selected as a National Green Data Centre in 2020 for its efficient power usage – Liberal Party lawmaker Michael Lee Chun-keung said Hong Kong should aim for better synergies with Greater Bay Area cities in the area of cross-border data exchanges by making good use of its strengths as a financial hub.

“Fujian’s digitalisation, especially its digital economy model … is more advanced than Hong Kong’s. Work is delegated across Fujian, with data centres located in Fuzhou and Xiamen responsible for calculations and data utilisation,” Lee said.

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