Emergence of an inno-tech hub
HK to create new hot spot for R&D, encourage more startups, foster greater GBA links
Alackluster place with mediocre offerings and huge swaths of farmland and brownfields that are either underused or abandoned: That is Hong Kong’s northern New Territories, which is set to become an effervescent new town, abuzz with state-of-the-art technologies and jawdropping innovations.
And there will be a host of go-getters ensuring that the innovation and technology there will never go flat.
It is not an imagined scenario for a distant future. Instead, it is ready to roll under the Northern Metropolis Development Strategy, unveiled by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her 2021 Policy Address.
The vision is to transform northern Hong Kong into a metropolis and a home to 2.5 million people. There would be 650,000 jobs up for grabs, including 150,000 in the innovation and technology sector, with a premium placed on innovation and technology development through integration and collaboration with neighboring Shenzhen.
An ultimate “twin cities, three circles” would come into being. The “twin cities” refer to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, while the “three circles” cover the Shenzhen Bay Quality Development Circle, the Hong KongShenzhen Close Interaction Circle, and the Mirs Bay/Yan Chau Tong Ecorecreation/tourism Circle.
It is proposed that the Lok Ma Chau Control Point be relocated to the new Huanggang Boundary Control Point in Shenzhen. The vacated land, along with the original land-use plans for the San Tin/Lok Ma Chau Development Node, will provide about 150 hectares of additional land to develop the San Tin Technopole.
Wong Kam-fei, director of the Centre for Innovation and Technology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the Northern Metropolis project is one that has “never been seen before” and is progressive.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is taking a “top-down” approach in setting out the road map in line with the nation’s 14th FiveYear Plan (2021-25), which encourages Hong Kong’s integration into the overall development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and positions Hong Kong as an international inno-tech, financial and logistics hub.
“In the previous Policy Addresses, we have never seen the government talking about Hong Kong-Shenzhen collaboration in such an open and clear-cut manner,” said Wong. This shows the government’s resolve in the Northern Metropolis development, and the blueprint is the fruit of intensive contemplation and examination. To ease Hong Kong’s integration with the Greater Bay Area, the city could use Shenzhen as a “connector”, he said.
Research and development is part and parcel of inno-tech. While R&D will be in full swing across the entire Northern Metropolis district, there is a distinction between “R&d” and “r&D”, Wong said. In the middle of the Northern Metropolis, where the San Tin Technopole is located, “R” and technology transfer will take center stage.
R&D in the fields of biomedicine, chemistry, artificial intelligence and other health and life disciplines will get priority in the Technopole as an InnoLife Healthtech Hub will be launched at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park.
But in the western area, covering Hung Shui Kiu and Shenzhen’s Qianhai, the “D”, or development, will be front and center because existing innovative technologies are to be harnessed to explore the digital market and give a push to digital commerce — namely, the modern service industry.
In the eastern part — stretching from Mirs Bay, Plover Cove and Sai Kung Country Parks on the Hong Kong side to Yantian district and the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen — close cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen will focus on ecological conservation, leisure activities and tourism. So, green technology for environmental benefits will dominate R&D activities.
Hong Kong’s southern region has tried-and-true commercial and financial experience under its belt and will continue to explore financial innovations under the government’s policies. Hence, finance in the south and innovation in the north will make up a complete and holistic picture of Hong Kong’s inno-tech development in the next five to 10 years, Wong said.
Hong Kong has supportive institutions, primarily Science Park and Cyberport, for incubating startups, sparking an inno-tech “eureka” moment, and bridging researchers and businesses. However, there are a slew of constraints in the city’s progress on R&D.
“The city’s two parks have reached a saturation point because of the mismatch between the growing influx of companies and restricted space,” Wong said.
He said the government is adamant that there will be no real-estate activities in the Technopole. “The property there will only be for rent, reflecting the government’s sole intent on innotech development.”
If there is anything to go by, the target market will be the Greater Bay Area, Wong said. Startups in Hong Kong are hamstrung by the small local consumer market that is not sizable enough to provide a testing ground for prototypes.
Hong Kong excels in academic research, with four of its universities among the world’s top 100 tertiary educational institutions, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. But when it comes to commercializing research projects, Hong Kong has failed in the game, said Ling Kar-kan, a strategic planning adviser for Hong Kong/ Shenzhen Co-operation.
Startups in Hong Kong are hardpressed for various reasons when trying to take off. While the government-financed Incu-Tech startup incubation program launched by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp, or HKSTP, and Cyberport supports local startups through business matching, marketing and financial aid, the application success rate is pessimistically low. Only 16 to 30 percent of startups had benefited in 2018, according to a survey by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council last year.
“Startups need capital to start with, talents to grow, as well as pilot projects available with different stakeholders to acquire proof of concept to expand,” said Viola Lam Yuen-lee, CEO of Find Solution Ai, a startup specializing in personalized innovative solutions. “It takes an average of 18 months to commercialize a technology.”
Capital, a network with industries, and an environment conducive for users to embrace new technology are vital, Lam said. “Hong Kong is slightly hesitating in adopting new innovation, and this discourages the growth of startups.”
Wong, however, believes that the startup-friendly environment in the future Northern Metropolis could help Hong Kong’s budding companies overcome such problems. The Northern Metropolis is by no means the end destination for Hong Kong startups. “They want to reach out to the central part of the Chinese mainland and abroad,” he said.
Acting as the “middleman”, the Northern Metropolis will facilitate Hong Kong startups in prototyping and manufacturing before they can either choose to branch out to the mainland beyond the Greater Bay Area, or return to Hong Kong for initial public offerings and go overseas.
Lam said she is keen to establish a branch for her company in the Northern Metropolis, where she can secure the coveted “capital, network and environment”, adding, “I have a friend who has set up a software company in the metropolis district and is faring well.”
In adviser Ling’s view, any move to attract inno-tech professionals would be ineffective without a well-curated transport network. To address the needs, five new rail links are in the pipeline to provide a speedy and easy route for professionals who need to commute regularly between Hong Kong and the mainland.
Other plans include implementing innovative immigration clearance arrangements to facilitate regular cross-border travel of inno-tech practitioners in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and enhancing internal and external transportation of the San Tin / Lok Ma Chau area.
Georges Hung Huai-che, design director at Gensler — a global integrated architecture, design and consulting firm — is involved with major Hong Kong property developers in conceptual design for HKSTP buildings in the Lok Ma Chau Loop.
His design for the buildings sounds futuristic and make-believe. But as the construction and design of the first batch of eight buildings are essentially underway, it may not be futuristic at all. The complex will be a “hybrid campus” where “live, work, learn and play” will be just a stone’s throw from each other, Hung said.
An R&D apparatus, leisure infrastructure, retail, sports facilities and open space for socializing will be all under one roof in a multifunctional and mix-used building of about 30,000 square meters. “It’s a resilient and self-contained community celebrating a 15- and 20-minute life cycle,” said Hung.
How could the purpose-built architecture benefit startups there? Startups thrive on collaboration and eureka moments out of serendipitous encounters with people in the area or from other disciplines. To Hung, this is a relevant factor in the design equation. The no-clear-cut definition of office place and respite space creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to mingle around and extract ideas from serendipity. He sums it up as “working while not working”.
For example, a startup doing R&D on robotics could draw inspiration from people watching in the central atrium — people’s movements, gestures, expressions and way of interaction when bumping into each other. These behavioral cues could later be translated into robotics development or used to refine existing products.
The Northern Metropolis in the making will be shaped by existing inno-tech and inspire more inno-tech. It will dictate the sector’s future trend in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and the world.