Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said Hong Kong needs to develop more computing power facilities to serve the Greater Bay Area and beyond.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio Programme on Sunday, Sun said Hong Kong has designated artificial intelligence as a key industry and has an advantage in providing computing facilities.

However, he added that Hong Kong needs more facilities to cope with the expected huge demand in the future.

Sun said the government had launched a tender to establish a data centre at Sandy Ridge in North District.

“We adopted a two-envelope approach to the tender this time, with a weighting of 70 percent being allocated to the assessment of non-premium factors,” he said.

“We will assess the service scale and quality that bidders can offer to the facility, job opportunities they can offer, their economic contributions to Hong Kong and the level of technology. This is our first attempt to address the industry-oriented approach.”

Sun also said he hopes the new data centre could utilise green energy technologies to lower electricity costs.

Meanwhile, Sun said the government would release the industrial development plan of San Tin Technopole in the coming months.

He added the SAR could learn from the mainland when developing the Northern Metropolis, including building a liveable environment to attract talent.