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Industries should grasp the new opportunities brought by "The Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta" and continue to invest in technological research and development (R&D) to enhance long term competitiveness, the Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, Mr Eddy Chan, said today (June 9).
Addressing a luncheon meeting organised by the Chinese Manufacturers' Association for information technology and logistics associates, Mr Chan said that the outline, launched not long ago by the State Council, had taken into consideration Shenzhen's momentum in technology development as well as Hong Kong's strengths in sales and marketing, raising of capital and brand promotion. The two sides complemented each other to help enhance the competitiveness of their industries, he added.
Mr Chan said, "The Task Force on Economic Challenges has pinpointed the favourable foundation of Hong Kong in developing innovative technology as well as its excellent software and hardware, including world class universities; a sound legal system with notably good protection for intellectual property; and an open and flexible commercial market. These are essential elements for supporting applied R&D work."
"Hong Kong can also make good use of the advantage of the Pearl River Delta region in manufacturing and the vast Mainland market to achieve economies of scale in production", he said.
Noting that the Government had been studying how to optimise these advantages, Mr Chan said the five R&D centres set up in 2006 provided industries with one-stop services, conducted industry-oriented applied R&D projects, and promoted technology transfer and commercialisation of research outputs to increase the added value of products and assist in industry upgrading. So far, 126 projects have been approved under the R&D Centre for Information and Communications Technologies and the R&D Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Enabling Technologies, with total funding of about $770 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF).
The Government has been also encouraging and assisting enterprises in technology enhancement through the ITF. Since its establishment in 1999, the ITF has supported about 1,400 projects with total funding of around $4 billion. Starting this year, the maximum funding for each approved project in the Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Programme (SERAP) under the fund has been raised from $2 million to $4 million.
Mr Chan said, "We have further expanded our Internship Programme to benefit the private sector from this year."
He said the Government was also actively exploring the feasibility of phase 3 development of the Science Park to ensure the park could continue to support the development of Hong Kong's research capacity effectively.
In addition, as the first major project under the framework of the Shenzhen/Hong Kong Innovation Circle, the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Governments successfully invited DuPont of the USA to set up its Solar Energy Thin Film Photovoltaic Research and Industrial Platform in the Hong Kong Science Park in March and its manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen. The project can support the development of the related industries of the two sides, such as integrated chips, electronic control and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
Mr Chan said he hoped this collaboration mode of "R&D in Hong Kong, manufacturing in Shenzhen" could attract more overseas enterprises to conduct R&D projects in Hong Kong.
In conclusion, he said that the financial tsunami had changed the global economic pattern and distribution of wealth, and there had been new industrial developments. All these had offered innovation and technology better opportunities with greater potential than ever.
Ends/Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:38
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