US remains important source of funds and start-ups for Hong Kong, head of InvestHK says
- Director General Alpha Lau tells Post during California trip some American tech companies expressed interest in investment opportunities in Greater Bay Area
- American firms play important role in Hong Kong’s innovation ecosystem, she says, noting 12 per cent of city’s 4,300 start-ups either from US or had American origin
The United States remains one of Hong Kong’s most important destinations for attracting funds and start-ups, the head of the financial hub’s investment promotion agency has told the Post during a trip to California, despite Washington’s strained ties with Beijing.
InvestHK’s Director General Alpha Lau Hai-suen said some American tech companies she spoke with had expressed an interest in investment opportunities in the Greater Bay Area, an economic zone consisting of Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.
She also revealed that organising a visit by American firms to the city was being explored.
“The US has always been consistently in the top three or four in terms of where the foreign companies are from, after mainland China and Japan,” she said in an interview in Berkeley. “They’re all equally important … I won’t say there’s one more important than the other.
“We must continue to foster this … San Francisco Bay area, you know, it’s a bedrock of the technological advancements in this country.”
