Hong Kong should fully transform itself into a "super value-adder" which would be key to its prosperity for the next five years, according to a local think-tank.

Research director Ray Poon from PoD Research Institute told RTHK that the SAR is "not too far away" from helping to transform the nation’s technological breakthroughs completely into globally trusted, commercially viable services, but it lags behind its regional competitors in some aspects.

"Hong Kong has a lot of fundamental raw capacity... To take talent for example, we have all the strengths. We have a lot of institutional capacity, we boast our world-class universities, we have excellent IP protection, we have our common law heritage, and crucially our population is technologically ready," he said.

"However, compare with our regional competitors like Singapore, they have been building their AI capacity in the past decade such as smart nation architecture and also an AI testing framework."

Poon said the city could focus on so-called "frontier technology" to help it become a "super value-adder".

"For example, the space economy – in fact, over 90 percent of the commercial value of the space economy is on the ground, so it's services rather than building rockets or launching rockets. To make a case, Hong Kong can extract raw satellite data and turn them into maritime compliance for example, such as tracking dark vessels," he said.

"We can also develop our smart city and healthcare AI models using our dense urban environment and create a digital twin for all kinds of testing and make it the AI governance prototype for Asia."

And in a bid to attract more professionals to the city, Poon said the city could think outside the box.

He cited the Top Talent Pass Scheme which focuses on the world’s top 100 universities, mainly from Western countries and regions.

"There are a lot of other places in the world that merit our attention, such as our Asian partners. Vietnam, Myanmar are one of the greatest trading partners with us. But they have no representative in those leading tables, and there is also zero representative from any African country. So human capital is a huge part of the deficit here."



Edited by Edmond Fong