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‘Han the Robot’ waits on stage before a discussion about the future of humanity and artificial intelligence by Hanson Robotics at the RISE Conference in Hong Kong on July 12, 2017. Photo: Agence France-Presse
TechEnterprises

Asia tech conference RISE ditches Hong Kong for Malaysia

  • The decision comes as major tech companies fret over the accelerating crackdown by Beijing on dissent in Hong Kong
  • Hosting RISE in Malaysia is expected to expand the event’s reach into Southeast Asia
RISE Hong Kong
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
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A major Asia-focused technology conference announced on Thursday that it is ditching Hong Kong in favour of Malaysia, in a fresh blow to the Chinese financial hub’s push to attract tech talent.
The annual RISE Conference brings together chief executives, start-ups and investors, and has been held in Hong Kong over the past five years.

Organisers, however, said they would move their annual conference to Kuala Lumpur in 2022.

“Hosting RISE in Kuala Lumpur is going to expand the event into an exciting region of Southeast Asia,” Casey Lau, co-host of RISE, said in a statement.

The decision comes as major tech firms fret over the accelerating crackdown by Beijing on dissent in Hong Kong, following last year’s huge and sometimes violent democracy protests.

Hong Kong protests prompt organiser to scrap RISE Conference in 2020 as unrest clouds longer term planning

In June, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that grants authorities significant powers to access company servers and networks.

The crackdown prompted the United States to declare Hong Kong no longer sufficiently autonomous from authoritarian China, which blocks access to many of the world’s top technology companies.

After the law the was enacted, major tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter said they were suspending requests from the Hong Kong government and law enforcement authorities for information on users.

The annual RISE Conference brings together chief executives, start-ups and investors, and has been held in Hong Kong over the past five years. Photo: SCMP
Plans for an undersea fibre optic cable system between Los Angeles and Hong Kong were also scrapped after the US government expressed fears China might steal data from it.

RISE made no mention of Hong Kong’s rapidly changing political situation in its statement explaining the move.

“We look for the best homes to host our events and secure long term deals with cities,” a company representative told AFP.

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