Hong Kong can learn from Israel’s start-up experience, position itself as leading fintech and blockchain hub, Tel Aviv official says

Hong Kong can follow Israel’s example of nurturing start-ups, and position itself as a leading financial technology and blockchain centre, an official with Tel Aviv’s municipality has said.

Michal Michaeli, director of international economic development at Tel Aviv Global, a municipal company dealing with tourism and economic development under the mayor's office at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, said in a recent telephone interview that Hong Kong “could have been an amazing place”, if it leveraged its financial hub status and exposure to trade to fund and groom more start-ups in commerce and trade.

“A lot of start-ups [and] a lot of ventures need funding, and they’re definitely in the early stages. When you have access to funding, this can also be very important for an ecosystem to grow and mature,” she said.

Israel has 5,850 start-ups, or one start-up per 290 residents. The country is home to well-known start-ups such as website development platform Wix and web advertising platform Outbrain. “We do not have oil. We do not have coal, we do not have any special natural resources other than our minds. So we have to make the most of it,” Michaeli said, drawing a comparison with Hong Kong.

“Why not go and be the leading fintech centre, for example, or the leading blockchain hub. The government should do at least basic research to understand what does it really have already,” she said, adding that fintech was more than just mobile banking, and could include fields such as security and data centres.

Michaeli said she could hardly find any information about Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem. This suggested the city might need to do more to promote it internationally, even though it had signed agreements on cooperation with the United Kingdom and Thailand.