The Open Forum on
Strengthening Hong Kong’s Economic Competitiveness through Technology Development was organized by Dashun Policy Research Centre and co-organized by ITC, HKSTPC, FHKI, HKEIA, ITJC, HKAAST, ASTRI, HKYIC, Invotech and AEPS on 15th Sep 2014 in Charles K. Kao Auditorium, Hong Kong Science Parks. Technology Development is the key to Hong Kong’s future economic capability and international competitiveness. It matches the national direction advocated by Premier Li Keqiang at the National People’s Congress 2014 and by the Chief Executive in his 2014 Policy Address regarding the setting up of the Innovation and Technology Bureau.
In the beginning of the forum, Dr. Raymond Ho Chung-tai, SBS, JP (Chairman, Dashun Policy Research Centre) gave a welcome remarks and he introduced the vision of Dashun Policy Research Centre to create a better Hong Kong for all. The centre founded on 12 May 2011 by a large group of professionals, experts and scholars of different disciplines to promote the long term interests and sustainable development of Hong Kong.
The Hon John Tsang Chun-wah, GBM, JP (Financial Secretary, HKSAR) gave an opening address. He said competitiveness was not only a ranking but considering on different factors. There were five cores included Infrastructure, Funding, Talent Training, Cooperation with Mainland and Oversea, and Innovation culture. He believed technology development could be strengthening Hong Kong’s economic competitiveness.
Group photo taken for all speakers, guests and co-organizers
Part 1: Technology DevelopmentMrs. Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, GBS, JP (Member, HKSAR Executive Council; Chairperson, Board of Directors of the HKSTPC) was keynote speaker and his speech named “The Vision of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation”.
Firstly, Mr.s Fanny Law Fan introduced the innovation ecosystem which included Government, Funding, Culture, Infrastructure, Talent and Market. Then she mentioned HKSTP’s four development directions included feedback to market need, provision of hardware facilities, service to tenants and independent operation. Moreover, she stated that there were four key areas to be focused as Training Talent, Focus on advance field, enhancing research ecosystem and their synergize effect, and cooperation/collaboration with others (e.g. Mainland National research centre and incubators).
Dr. Ni Peng-fei (Director, Centre for City and Competitiveness, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Professor) was the guest speaker and his presentation entitled “Strengthening City Competitiveness through Technology: Some World Experience for Hong Kong”.
He said that Hong Kong needed Technology Innovation and compared with other small population countries. Even though the ranking of Hong Kong was not too bad but the factors of the Global Innovation Index included some factors other than technologies.
Prof. Tony F. Chan (President, HKUST) was another guest speaker and his topic was “Innovation and Technology in Hong Kong: an Achievable Dream?” HKUST video was shown and one of their students to be young entrepreneur (DJI) and elected as top ten innovators in China. Prof. Chan said there had big change in the environment. Firstly, China economic had growth rapidly to be the 2nd large economy in the world. Secondly, China increased investment to science and technology from 1.5% to 2.2% in the China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. Thirdly, China’s fundamental science development was aggressive. Finally, China’s big technology companies had set up R&D centres in Hong Kong (e.g. TCL, BGI, Huawei, etc.)
The First Panel Discussion was chaired by Dr. Samson Tam, JP (Director of Hong Kong Association for the Promotion of Cooperation in Industry, University and Research Institute Limited). During the discussion, Prof. Tony Chan said technology transfer was mainly through students rather than professors and it needed seed funding. Samson said we also needed to have region cooperation among local government, industry, academic and research.
Part 2: Technology Applications
The second keynote speaker was Ms. Janet Wong Wing-chen, JP (Commissioner for Innovation and Technology) and her presentation title named “Development of Innovation and Technology in Hong Kong”. She introduced four objectives of ITC below.
i) Lower the threshold for companies to conduct applied R&D
ii) Minimize the financial implication of failure when companies undertake high-risk R&D projects
iii) Stimulate private sector investment in R&D
iv) Promote greater use of I&T in the public sector by supporting demand driven R&D
Then she mentioned some new measures of ITF such as Enterprise Support Scheme (ESS) which would be replaced SERAP with no recoupment of fund; and Technology Start-up Support Scheme for University (TSSSU).
The next guest speaker was Mr. Andrew Chiu Shun-pui (Director, 3DP Technology Ltd.) and his topic entitled “R&D in Hong Kong: A Case Study of 2D to 3D Printer”. Firstly, Mr. Andrew Chiu briefed the different between research (Outcome: Patent / Technical Paper) and development (Outcome: Product). Then he stated how his company transferred from Toys to 2D Printer in which they developed some patents. He found that there were 12 times return of investment on this IPs.
Then he introduced 3D Printing which was a multiple technology unlike 2D printing included Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), Fused Depositing Modelling (FDM), Stereo Lithography Appearance (SLA) and Selected Laser Sintering (SLS), etc. He said 3D Printing could be traced to 1892 from US patent named Manufacture of Contour Relief Maps. In near future, the market of 3D printing would be as big as trillion dollar industry! Finally, Mr. Chiu mentioned his idea how to separate of research from development. It needed Investor as catalysis.
The next guest speaker was Mr. Jason Chiu (CEO, Cherrypicks) and his presentation was “Opportunities for Made-in-HK Disruptive Innovation”. His company mainly focused on the innovation in application technologies in Mobile and Cloud. He mentioned his strategies that User Experience Design and Technology (UXDT) as their core competence. Partnership model could leverage the unique market position with China. He suggested that government’s role should be supporting technology and startup ecosystem. Mr. Chiu quoted GE’s definition of Innovation that “
To Innovate … is to challenge and change the status quo to enhance the customer’s experience and bring new forms of value to them.”
Mr. Jason Chiu expected the new Innovation and Technology Bureau would like Berlin that
i) Targeting along the entire value chain
ii) Pulling stakeholders together
iii) Improving welcoming culture
iv) Deploying resources in research and academia
v) Improving coordination
The last guest speaker was Mr. George Chang (Managing Director, Morningside Group) and his presentation named “Economic Competitiveness through Technology – An Investor’s Perspective”. He said Hong Kong lacked supply chain and ecosystem therefore most of his investments were in mainland. He believed economic competitiveness and technology were related each other. However, most technology companies especially on ICT, Internet and mobile had no clear business model. He said Apps model was still in free stage and got advertisement as income; so the payment system was not established completely.
The 2nd Panel Discussion was chaired by Ir. Lee Kam-hung, Arthur (Hong Kong Affairs Committee Advisor, Hong Kong Young Industrialists Council). Janet found that ITF and VC could be cooperated each other. ITF covered the risk in the beginning stage of startup and VC joined to monitoring their growth. Jason shared that Fail Fast, Fail Big and Fail Forward.
At the end of forum, Dr. Roy Chung Chi-ping, BBS, JP (Forum Convenor and Think Tank Member of Dashun Policy Research Centre; Former Chairman of FHKI) gave use a closing remarks.
Reference:
Dashun Policy Research Centre -
http://www.dashun.org.hk/ HKSTPC -
http://www.hkstp.org/ ITC Funding Schemes -
http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/funding/index.htm
1. Replicator 2X (Makerbot)
