HK, mainland agree to inno-tech cooperation
The special administrative region government and the Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement on Thursday — outlining a “top-level” action plan for future Hong Kong-mainland innovation and technology cooperation.
The agreement is first concrete inno-tech cooperation plan between the two sides after President Xi Jinping issued an instruction in May to strengthen Hong Kongmainland science and technology collaboration. The president also expressed support for the city’s development into an international inno-tech hub.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang; it was held two months after Lam visited the science ministry in Beijing.
Lam said the arrangement will serve as a guide and framework for the mainland and Hong Kong to develop inno-tech cooperation initiatives. It also establishes a “milestone” for collaboration between the two sides.
According to the agreement, Hong Kong and the mainland will enhance cooperation in six areas. These are: scientific research, development of platforms, nurturing talents, transferring research results and incubation of inno-tech industry, integration into national development strategies and cultivation of inno-tech atmosphere in society.
Wang described the arrangement as a “top-level plan”. Such a systematic arrangement was necessary because technological development would influence other areas, such as the economy, environment and people’s livelihoods, he noted.
Another agreement — to serve as a framework for the funding and the modus operandi of the coming joint funding scheme between Hong Kong and the mainland — was also signed.
The joint funding scheme will support collaboration in research and development. It would also help both Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland to resolve difficulties and achieve breakthroughs in science and technology, Lam said.
The science ministry also announced it would entrust SenseTime Group Ltd — Hong Kong’s home-grown unicorn on artificial intelligence to establish the National Open Innovation Platform for NextGeneration Artificial Intelligence on Intelligent Vision.
SenseTime has become the fifth company involved with the National Open Innovation Platform for Next-Generation AI after China’s four AI tycoons: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and iFlyTek.
Founded in 2014, SenseTime, focusing on computer vision and deep learning, has grown to become China’s biggest AI unicorn within four years. The company has raised total financing of more than $1.6 billion; it is now valued at over $4.5 billion.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang on Thursday witnessed the signing of a very important agreement on enhancing innovation and technology cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong.
This is no doubt another major milestone for Hong Kong’s science and technology research community. It can work with its counterpart on the mainland to contribute to the country’s inno-tech development drive as well as its efforts to diversify the economy in the face of a deteriorating foreign trade environment with the disruption of globalization and free trade by the US government.
Lam listed in her first Policy Address after taking office that the development of the inno-tech sector was a major step in economic diversification. She earmarked considerable funding for the plan. This has won strong public support and has been making progress in the past year or so. It also aims to boost innotech cooperation with the mainland to achieve win-win results for simultaneous sci-tech advancement. This is indeed a concrete step in integrating Hong Kong into the nation’s overall development strategy according to the central government’s vision.
It won ultimate approval by President Xi Jinping in his speeches during his inspection tour here last summer to celebrate the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s 20th anniversary, followed by his written reply to a letter signed by Hong Kong-based academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, published earlier this year.
The agreements signed on Thursday can be seen as the central government’s promise to Hong Kong on funding and assistance for State-sanctioned sci-tech research projects. These will be conducted by teams in Hong Kong and/or in cooperation with their mainland colleagues. This means that such cooperation will be a fixture of the country’s overall inno-tech development strategy as well as Hong Kong’s own fledgling inno-tech sector. This should also help boost Hong Kong’s own knowledge-centric sectors such as higher education and healthcare, which help to diversify the economy.
Such cooperation between the HKSAR and the mainland has already born fruit in areas such as electronics, fintech, environmental protection and alternative medicine. The new agreements will pave the way for cross-boundary sci-tech and inno-tech cooperation — with joint developments being institutionalized and routinized. We are confident Hong Kong’s experience in keeping up with the development of cutting-edge technology, market application, regulation and related legislation in future will benefit the whole nation — including Hong Kong itself.