Hong Kong start-up hubs expand city’s collaboration with Saudi Arabia to forge closer ties a year after John Lee visit

HKSTP and Cyberport signed memorandums of understanding to share knowledge and explore collaboration opportunities at Saudi Arabia’s Leap conference
The organisations are focusing on three main areas: biotech, green tech and construction, while also paying attention to AI developments

Start-ups

Matt Haldanein Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Published: 5:00pm, 5 Mar 2024

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Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) and Cyberport each signed memorandums of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh on Monday, a year after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu attended the Leap technology conference to foster closer ties between the two markets.

The third annual Leap event is the first to feature a Hong Kong pavilion, where HKSTP and Cyberport had eight and seven companies exhibiting, respectively.

Biotech and other health care-related technologies were a significant part of the pavilion, as this is an area together with green tech and construction-related tech, where Hong Kong can most benefit Saudi Arabia, Albert Wong Hak-keung, CEO of HKSTP, which sponsored the Post’s trip to Riyadh, said at the event.

“I really think that health tech is a big area, ESG [environmental, social and governance] is a big area, construction is a big area,” Wong said. “Efficiency is an issue, lack of manpower is a big deal … The whole region is looking at transforming their economy from oil into other things.”

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks CEO Albert Wong Hak-keung at the Hong Kong pavilion during the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 4, 2024. SCMP / Matt Haldane

With the new MOUs, Hong Kong’s leading start-up hubs are looking to bolster opportunities in their tech sectors through closer collaboration. HKSTP is looking at opportunities to collaborate on tech platforms and software, and share knowledge on best practices for infrastructure development and design standards.

Among the health tech start-ups at the event were Cornerstone Robotics, which designs robots to help with surgery, and GenEditBio, a gene-editing company that attended to sign an MOU with the Saudi company Anwa BioSciences.

In a busy first day at the packed Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre, Hong Kong representatives and companies held panel discussions and met Saudi officials to tout the city’s tech prowess and the benefits it has to offer.

Saudi Arabia’s Vice-Governor of Research, Development and Innovation Authority Abdulrahman Alsufvani told Hong Kong Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong on the sidelines of the event that he was looking forward to further collaboration

“We would like to visit … the science parks over there and hopefully activate what we agree on in the next couple of days to build the bridges,” Alsufvani said. “We believe in what you have done. You have successful stories over there. We need to now strengthen these businesses between the two.”

Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong talks with Saudi Arabia’s Vice-Governor of the Research, Development and Innovation Authority Abdulrahman Alsufvani at the Leap conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 4, 2024. SCMP / Matt Haldane

Sun also noted to the Post Saudi Arabia’s position as a key partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “We’re going to look at the great opportunities to further enhance our national strategies in this aspect,” he said.

In addition to the other three areas of collaboration, Sun said the “Saudi leadership keeps talking AI” with him.

Like most tech shows in the past year, artificial intelligence (AI) was front and centre, with seemingly every company eager to talk about how related tech is being implemented into their own products.

Chinese big tech firms also had massive booths on display touting their AI cloud offerings.

The booth of Huawei Technologies at the Leap conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 4, 2024. SCMP / Matt Haldane

Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud, a unit of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, were facing off against the likes of Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services in the main hall. Huawei’s Pangu model was at the centre of its booth, and a representative there said the Saudi government was already using Pangu.

Huawei has been expanding its cloud offerings in the region, having set up a Riyadh data centre in September.

Smaller companies face bigger hurdles. Some Hong Kong start-ups at the show like speech recognition firm Fano Labs dabble in specific types of AI. Another is Geek+, which builds robots for warehouse automation.

The main focus, though, was on the three areas that Wong mentioned, especially biotech. Sun, too, highlighted Hong Kong’s “strong capability in biotech research”.

The success of the Saudi partnerships, however, could be measured in the types of opportunities that emerge from them. The Hong Kong start-ups were eager to pitch the kinds of business opportunities they were looking for in the kingdom. Beyond just investment, the companies are looking to bring their tech to the market, something HKSTP’s Wong said the group was eager to accomplish.

“We hope that [the start-ups] can find out what the business opportunities are in this part of the world and maybe even come up with a commercialisation plan,” Wong said.

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