Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu speaks during an interview with China Daily in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on Feb 9, 2023. Lee said in an interview with local media on Feb 28, 2023 that complementary collaboration between Hong Kong and the rest of Greater Bay Area cities can produce outcomes that are greater than the sum of all parts. (LIU XIAOHAN / CHINA DAILY)
Complementary collaboration between Hong Kong and the rest of Greater Bay Area cities can produce outcomes that are greater than the sum of all parts, said Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in an interview with local media yesterday.
To illustrate this, he drew a comparison with a scenario in team sports: “A team runs far, another runs fast, and there’s one jumping high. When the three teams join hands, the collective force is strong enough to win the game. This is the ethos of the Greater Bay Area,” remarked Lee.
Hong Kong and other mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen in particular, are not by any means pitting their wits against each other. Rather, it’s a matter of two high achievers playing the game hand at hand on complementary and reciprocal terms, to fast track [them on] the path to achieve the goal.
John Lee Ka-chiu,
Hong Kong Chief Executive
“Hong Kong and other mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen in particular, are not by any means pitting their wits against each other. Rather, it’s a matter of two high achievers playing the game hand at hand on complementary and reciprocal terms, to fast track [them on] the path to achieve the goal.”
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It could be a tad reductive to define the relationship as that of mere partners, said Lee, because we are even moving a step further towards “integration” – a level up from collaboration.
“We recognize each other’s advantages and limitations, we are keen to leverage one’s strengths to make up for the other’s drawbacks, and we are lending each other a playground to fulfil and maximize their edge,” he continued.
“When it comes to formulating mutual policies, we should put ourselves in each other’s shoes, to ensure the win-win reward.”
Lee said that Hong Kong and Shenzhen have forged common ground and are on the same page, and he believes the two neighboring cities will be able to take it in their stride and in sync, recognizant that rivalry will get us nowhere.
Technology dictates our future, while innovation serves as the primary impetus, Lee said. The national 14th-Five Year Plan makes it explicit that the central government supports and expects Hong Kong to develop into an international I&T hub, with better integration into the overall development of the country and deeper cooperation between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. One noteworthy takeaway is that the Plan positions Shenzhen-Hong Kong Lok Ma Chau Loop as a major platform for cooperation in the Greater Bay Area, where the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park and the InnoLife Healthtech Hub will be abuzz with research and development in biomedicine, chemistry, physics, engineering and artificial intelligence.
Taking pride in Hong Kong’s outstanding performance in basic scientific research buttressed by the five local universities that each claim a place in the world’s top 100 academy rankings, Lee said that the SAR government has bent over backwards to supplement the city’s accomplishments in the area with instrumental policies to further spur the sentiment of innovation.
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In his 2022 Policy Address, Lee made it clear that the government would earmark HK$10 billion ($1.27 billion) to launch the Research, Academic & Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme in 2023, which will fund, on a matching basis, at least 100 research teams in universities exhibiting good potential for entrepreneurial ventures.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in his latest budget announced that HK$10 billion would be allocated to further promoting the development of life and health technology. Chan also decided to double the subsidy amount to HK$440 million to strengthen support for R&D activities at 16 State Key Laboratories and six Hong Kong Branches of the Chinese National Engineering Research Centres in Hong Kong. Subsidy amounts under the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities will also be doubled to HK$16 million.
However, the current R&D expenditure in the city only accounts for roughly 1 percent of total GDP, Lee said. “We aim to dial it up to 2 percent in the [foreseeable] future.” The core issue to reckon with, Lee noted, is “how to industrialize and commercialize the research outcome”.
That’s where the rest of the Greater Bay Area cities in the mainland come into play, to compensate for Hong Kong’s rough edges in production and manufacturing, Lee said.
“Hong Kong has fared exceptionally in the upstream industry chain, with 70 percent of scientific research being recognized as world-class, while other Greater Bay Area cities in the mainland, by virtue of their expertise in downstream industry or manufacturing, could facilitate Hong Kong to translate promising research outcomes into commercial products,” he said.
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To align with the “comprehensive” I&T policies of the central government, Lee said the current SAR government is taking a proactive course of action in lieu of the previous “active but passive in participating” approach. The proactive and go-getting sentiment has manifested itself in a lot of concrete moves by the new administration, including the HK$30 billion set aside from the Future Fund to establish the Co-Investment Fund for attracting enterprises to set up operations in Hong Kong and investing in their business, and the newly-established Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited set up to optimize the use of fiscal reserves for promoting the development of industries and the economy.
These generous allocations of funds and endeavors are intended to attract talents, professionals and unicorn enterprises from the Chinese mainland and abroad — with the added bonus being, such moves inspire confidence among the public in Hong Kong’s I&T flair and competence, Lee said.