Hong Kong’s path to tech hub status is through attracting talent, says former financial secretary

In the race to develop Hong Kong into a technology hub, attracting top talent should take precedence over capital which is already abundant in the city, Antony Leung, former financial secretary of Hong Kong and chairman of Nan Fung Group, said on Wednesday at the official launch of his New Frontier Group.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai-based venture capital investor is reported to have already sunk more than 100 million yuan into entrepreneurial companies since its establishment in August this year, including Hong Kong-based storage provider Boxful and connecting service provider HelloToby as well as several healthcare companies in China.

Leung said life science will be another world-changing industry, adding that he will not set upper limits for his venture investments because there is no shortage of capital in Hong Kong. As an investor, Leung said he values talent the most.

“The personality and character of an entrepreneur will be my first consideration,” he said. “Then I will weigh whether the business idea hits home or not.”

Carl Wu, co-founder of New Frontier, said the company has developed a unique set of standardised and proven processes to build and launch new internet companies in as short as eight weeks.

However, Hong Kong has not built up an ecosystem to nurture a suitable environment for cutting-edge research and innovation developments because the city lacks technology talent and relies heavily on the four pillar economic sectors oftrading and logistics (23.4 per cent of GDP ), tourism (5.1 per cent), financial services (16.6 per cent), and professional services and other producer services (12.4 per cent).