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Macroscope | Without a solid land policy, Hong Kong’s innovation and technology ambitions are on shaky ground

  • Hong Kong must quickly find the land needed for I&T development, provide affordable housing to draw talent and offer attractive property concessions like in Singapore and Shenzhen

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An aerial view of San Tin in the northern New Territories on October 5, 2021. The coming San Tin Technopole will help alleviate the shortage of land needed for Hong Kong to be a hub of technology and innovation. Photo: Winson Wong

The development of innovation and technology (I&T) is arguably a major factor that will determine the political and economic future of Hong Kong, and in turn, China.

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Growth in this critical area will not only help China in its pursuit of technological independence amid tensions with the United States, but also ensure global confidence in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area’s status as an important international financial centre – key issues identified by local delegates who attended the recent “two sessions” in Beijing, China’s most important political meetings of the year.
But Hong Kong’s I&T development faces considerable headwinds and has much catching up to do. While Hong Kong was ranked a respectable 14th on the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s 2022 Global Innovation Index, South Korea came in sixth, Singapore seventh, mainland China 11th and Japan 13th.

For the first time, China had as many science and technology clusters in the index’s top 100 as the US, with Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou ranked as the second top global S&T cluster after Tokyo-Yokohama.

But while Hong Kong enjoys a strong partnership with the rest of the Greater Bay Area, its existing property supply for I&T purposes is limited to about 8.5 million sq ft in gross floor area. In comparison, Singapore’s existing supply was 28.2 million sq ft at the end of last year.

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Aside from a lack of affordable property, including housing for overseas I&T talent – and perhaps because of this – Hong Kong also has an inadequate I&T talent pool. The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) has about 700 start-ups and 20,000 employees, half of whom are research and development professionals.
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