Hong Kong is on track to become a global innovation and technology centre with incremental results expected in five years' time, according to legislator Duncan Chiu.

But Chiu, who's been advocating tech and innovation policies for years, admits it'll take some time for the SAR to go from a tech "follower" to "creator".

Under the nation's 15th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong should boost its competitive edge by developing itself into an international innovation and technology hub.

The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in Lok Ma Chau will be a key project to take forward that objective, with wet labs and dedicated facilities for research and development.

Chiu said Hong Kong at this stage remained an adopter of technology. The goal, he added, is to become an innovator.

"[To] innovate and have a very high stream, upstream development and research capability is a difficult task," he said.

"So I would rate that we are at a very early stage because the policies that really enable Hong Kong to go upstream and putting all the efforts into research and counting the GDP ratio in R&D (research and development), I think we only really started this work in the last four, five years."

Asked where he envisioned Hong Kong to be in five years' time, Chiu was confident there will be incremental results.

"We have identified a few verticals, I would say – life sciences, AI, precision manufacturing or the next stage of frontier techs. These are all areas I think Hong Kong has the ingredients, the foundation to do well," he said.

"We should see some unicorns growing up in Hong Kong. We should see some teams and research going to a global stage."

He stressed the need to groom I&T professionals locally, and welcomed the Education Bureau's Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools.

"We cannot just rely on incoming talent. We have to keep up with the work with grooming local talent," he said.

"We need more early-stage investors. We need more long-term patient capital. And we need more big companies to really establish their research arm in Hong Kong. So these are all things that I think various government departments, bureaus, and also the industry associations, we're all helping to work on it."



Edited by Raymond Yeung