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Following is the speech by the Acting Chief Executive, Mr John C Tsang, at the global emerging technologies conference EmTech Hong Kong today (June 7):
Marty (Schmidt), Kathleen (Kennedy), Jason (Pontin), Charlie (Sodini), Michael (Dreyer), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
It is indeed my great pleasure to join you all for the opening of the first EmTech conference in Hong Kong.
My thanks to MIT Technology Review for bringing this prestigious conference series to Hong Kong and also for recognising this propitious moment, I think it is the tipping point for our city, as we emerge as the innovation and technology hub in the region.
I am deeply privileged to have spent a few memorable years at MIT - some half a century ago, I am afraid to say. Technology development has always been a serious business for us techies. And even someone like me, studying in the architecture department, would get involved with the teachings of Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the founding guru of the Media Lab. So, there seems to be little time to breathe between technological revolutions and technological disruptions. And that's why I have remained an avid reader of the Technology Review all these years.
Things have intensified somewhat over the recent period. The fast-maturing technologies in the past decade, notably in the form of telecommunications, in big data analytics, AI, cloud computing, robotics, biotech, Fintech and whatever, have enabled us to achieve tasks that were simply unthinkable, even in the wildest dreams.
These technologies have transformed entirely the way that we live, the way that we communicate, as well as the way that we do business. Consider the fact that the world's three largest companies currently by market cap (capitalisation) are all technology companies, it would not be too presumptuous to say technology is now at the heart, soul, as well as the spine of the new economic order that we are now living in.
If technology has fast-tracked somewhat in recent years, so, too, has Hong Kong's embrace of this trend. We have been putting in tremendous efforts over the years towards achieving the goal of nurturing a knowledge-based economy, fostering an innovative and technology-friendly culture in our community, as well as creating a healthy eco-system for technological entrepreneurship and start-ups.
I announced a host of measures in my Budgets in recent years to support development as well as application of innovative technologies. These initiatives range from the promotion of smart production and funding for research in tertiary institutions, as well as cash rebates to encourage R&D in our private sector. A dedicated team will be established under Invest Hong Kong to assist start-ups, investors and R&D institutions looking to establish a presence here in our city.
The measures also feature a US$560 million expansion of the Science Park, home to a great number of tech companies, from start-ups to SMEs, as well as multinationals. Science Park start-ups focus primarily on robotics, smart cities, the Internet of Things and healthy ageing - all areas of significant interest to Hong Kong.
Start-ups, in various stages, are also flourishing right here in Hong Kong. There are now more than 1 600 such companies - a 50 per cent increase since 2014. Some of them have already attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment from different parts of the world. And, rest assured, we are working hard to build on those good numbers.
Among other things, we are setting up a US$260 million Innovation and Technology Venture Fund to partner with private venture-capital funds to invest in local technology start-ups.
And to ensure that Hong Kong remains a major international financial centre in this pervasive digital age, we are also focusing quite a bit on Fintech. We shall be creating a dedicated working space to support 150 start-ups over the next few years, and we shall be arranging some 300 university students to join Fintech training camps in overseas universities. We are also bringing up the next generation of Fintech talent to drive development of various technologies, from cyber security to blockchain.
Our universities and R&D institutions have long produced internationally recognised researches. Indeed, four of our universities rank among the top 100 universities in the world in the 2015 QS World University Rankings. And we are providing them with additional resources to boost their mid-stream applied research in key technology areas.
Complementing our work on this front are a dozen of overseas institutions, innovation labs, incubators and accelerator programmes that have found their way to locate here in our city. And we expect to see good things coming out of their operations.
Accenture, for example, one of the leading global professional services companies in the world, has established a FinTech Innovation Lab in Hong Kong in 2014, following similar programmes that the company has established in New York and London, while both the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Wearable IoT World Labs from San Francisco launched their innovation labs in Hong Kong earlier this year.
And on this big day, a day that I have been looking forward to for some time, MIT Innovation Node will formally launch in Hong Kong later on in this very conference. A collaborative space, it is created to connect MIT's internationally celebrated community of technology researchers, academics and students with opportunities available only in Hong Kong and, through Hong Kong, in the neighbouring Pearl River Delta.
And there is more. In just a few months, Sweden's Karolinska Institute, one of the world's leading medical universities, will open its first overseas research centre, also right here in Hong Kong.
These world-class research and technology institutions as well as many other start-ups are turning to Hong Kong and for good reasons.
With our enviable location at the heart of Asia and our unparalleled connectivity with the Mainland, MIT, Karolinska and other institutions and companies in Hong Kong can harness the capital rich, investment friendly business community that thrives here, the low-volume manufacturing prowess of the Pearl River Delta, and also the massive potential of the ever-expanding consumer market in the Mainland. These advantages are available to no other economy. Nowhere else in the world.
Hong Kong's vibrant and truly globalised society, together with our business-friendly environment, as well as our world-class infrastructure and professional services, make us a superb breeding ground for new generations of entrepreneurs and technology talents.
As the famous author Malcolm Gladwell wrote, "The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire."
When it comes to innovation and technology, I would say that Hong Kong is there and the timing is now. So let the wildfire begin.
Thank you very much and have a good day.
Ends/Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Issued at HKT 11:46
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MP4 format