Supporting measures, including a fund for new industrialisation, tax reduction for patent holders and establishing an AI supercomputing centre, were revealed in John Lee's second Policy Address on Wednesday to develop the SAR into an international innovation and technology centre.

The chief executive said the government will set up a HK$10 billion New Industrialisation Acceleration Scheme to help enterprises in the fields of life and health technologies, AI, advanced manufacturing, and new energy technologies set up new production facilities.

The Chairman of the Productivity Council, Sunny Tan, said the government has put a lot of emphasis on promoting new industrialisation this year.

“[When we talk about funding] in the past we were talking about setting up production lines. But this time we’re talking about a bigger scale, the entire production facilities. So I think we’re further moving up the ladder in attracting even bigger and important players coming to Hong Kong… especially in the high-tech area,” Tan said.

Additionally, Lee also announced a plan to establish the third InnoHK cluster, which will research advanced manufacturing, materials, energy and sustainable development, in the Hong Kong Science Park in 2024.

The first two InnoHK clusters – focusing on health and AI research – were established there last year.

Tan said all three research clusters will synergise well with the New Industrialisation Acceleration Scheme.

“We’re seeing AI, data, advanced manufacturing, new energy – all these are the initiatives and directions of how we want to develop I&T to leverage the strength of Hong Kong.”

Separately, the CE also said the government will table a bill to Legco next year to reduce the tax rate for qualifying profits derived from patents to five percent from the existing 16.5 percent.

Other tech-related measures from the Policy Address included an AI supercomputing centre to be built in Cyberport in phases from 2024, and the repurposing of two-hectares of land in Sandy Ridge – originally slated for a public columbarium – to be used for I&T development.