Kevin Choi, permanent secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, is on the show to talk about turning our city’s I&T vision into reality. Choi highlights actually both the opportunities and challenges in building Hong Kong into a global I&T center, with the latest development in The Loop and the San Tin Technopole, how these can translate into innovation, investment and new jobs in the years ahead.

Check out the full transcript of TVB’s Straight Talk host Dr Eugene Chan Kin-keung’s interview with Permanent Secretary Kevin Choi:

Chan: Welcome to Straight Talk! I'm Eugene Chan. Kevin Choi, permanent secretary for Innovation, Technology, and Industry Bureau, is with us to talk about turning our city's I&T vision into reality. Choi is responsible for steering Hong Kong's I&T development, and new industrialization towards the vision of becoming an international innovation center. Since joining the government in 1997, he has served in senior roles, across multiple bureaus, and departments, contributing to major strategic initiatives, ranging from health care, territorial planning, to aviation, and transport infrastructure. He holds degrees from Imperial College London, Syracuse University, the University of London, and Stanford University. Welcome to our show, Kevin!

Choi: Thank you, Eugene!

Overall development

Chan: Kevin, you are now in a very hot seat, I can say, because you are in the I&T area, that a lot of people have been talking about. As we know, from the 14th Five-Year-Plan from the national planning, Hong Kong has been given the role of being an international I&T center. And since you're only in the job since October, only a few months, you have been looking into the actual work that has been done. So, before we start going through your actual portfolio, maybe, let's give the viewers an overview of where Hong Kong and the ecosystem is right at this moment.

Choi: Well, thank you, Eugene! That's a very good question. As you said, I've been here for a few months, it is really a very important question that Hong Kong has to answer. What exactly we want to do in innovation and technology or, in short, the I&T era.

I&T is an important economic driver. Not just for Hong Kong, but also for our country, and, in fact, for the whole world. And Hong Kong actually has been in a very well position in terms of, especially, academic research, on the upstream research, part of it. We have, like, five top-100 universities in Hong Kong with a lot of talents, professors, and also academics who are doing a lot on the research part of it. But we have been lacking the resources of those in the middle stream or the downstream. For example, we only have, like, two major I&T parks over the past two decades. We have Science Park, we have a Cyberport. These parks have been very instrumental in the past two decades. Each of them has nurtured, like, 1,000 enterprises in the I&T area. But as these enterprises, we have to have a little bit more of them, because these are the important ingredients of our society for our social economic development.

We have been traditionally strong in the financial sector. But this alone cannot create a lot of job opportunities. So, we need more on this particular part. I&T will be the future of not just Hong Kong, but the nation and, actually, the world. And, therefore, I will venture into what we are talking about … we will talk a little bit more later on, on the third park that we are doing. It is called the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone.

Chan: Right. Kevin, since you mentioned two names – one is the Cyberport, the other one is a Science Park … I think we must admit that a lot of people in the Hong Kong community say that one of them, Cyberport that wanted to do I&T but is a very successful real estate project that has been given that perspective. But if you look at the Science Park, which I had the privilege of visiting, you see there're a lot of companies going in there. So, maybe you can tell the viewers what concrete process or progress we have made in the last couple of years.

Choi: Let's talk a little bit more about the existing parks first.

Chan: Yes.

Choi: As you mentioned very rightly, Science Park has been, in a more comprehensive manner, supporting our technology sector, especially in nurturing some startups. So, as you said, it has been quite successful in Pak Shek Kok. And also, we have actually pour in quite some investment into it too – not just from the government side, but also from the university side – and also some cross-disciplinary research, where we have some inno Hong Kong center established in Science Park. They focus a lot on the new technologies, like I&T, life science, data science, etc.

Now, for Cyberport, yes, I think the head-start may be a little bit more focused on real estate development first. But actually we have equipped it more on AI and big data science. Over the past few years, we have already invested in quite some … actually, Nvidia chips to ensure that they have enough supercomputing power. And they are now supporting a lot of financial and also other data science. They partnered with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in some generative AI programs for financial institutes. They have launched a scheme, which supports other enterprises too to use the super-computing power, and also universities to use the computing power, too. So, it will focus more on the digital technology, data science, and AI ecosystem, too. And it has a phase 5, which is upcoming, and will actually be doubling its floor area. So, Cyberport will now actually be more equipped and also have more space to help the digital ecosystem to flourish too.

Chan: Right, Kevin, since you mentioned that I&T is an area where the whole world is actually all rushing or racing to be the actual winner, what advantage or competitive advantage does Hong Kong have, in terms of the global landscape today, especially amongst our Asian competitors?

Choi: Thanks, Eugene, that's why I have to talk about the third park. Why are we doing a third park, which actually is like four times the area of the Pak Shek Kok Science Park? It is that we find out that Hong Kong has the unique advantage of, of course, bridging the mainland and the world. Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” principle, and, also, we put it into practice, has lots of advantages, including the common law system, like our global IP protection system. These things are very important for I&T development all over the world. Now, the mainland, of course, has a very nice, great and also evolving ecosystem of its own on I&T parts. But they have to find a way to connect to the world too so that the new enterprises in the mainland could actually get out to the world as its market. You know through the Belt and Road Initiative, China wishes very much to export its advantages and also technology products to the world, to different parts of the world. So, Hong Kong will be one of the very important parts of it, and, vice versa, for overseas enterprises. They often have a lot of technological products too that they wish to try out in the mainland market, which is a vast market of the world. So, it only goes naturally that Hong Kong should develop its bridging position and to make it even more prominent in I&T area.

Hong Kong Park

Chan: Right. One area that I'm sure the viewers have been listing a lot, is the term the Northern Metropolis, especially in the chief executive's policy address. He has actually one chapter to say that we must accelerate the progress. You know, this government is really keen on getting the results, the so called KPI. Then, actually, I've read that you've set up what we call the Inter-departmental Vetting Coordination Task Force. Very strong name. To fast-track the construction, even for Hong Kong Park, it’ll hopefully commence operation by the end of this year. So, can you, before we go on the latest progress, I mean, how does it all fit into the Northern Metropolis, especially Hong Kong Park?

Choi: Yes, the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao, Shenzhen, Hong Kong Science and Technology, Innovation Cooperation Zone, so quite a long name ...

Chan: Exactly.

Choi: … The Loop is, in fact, the jewel of the Northern Metropolis, because it is going to have the advantage that I have just mentioned, it will be bridging the mainland and the world technological sectors. Why am I saying so? It will have the national advantage and the local advantage of free flow of important and innovation elements, like personnel, like data, like bio samples, because it sits across the river of the Shenzhen, which is the growth engine of the innovation and technology center of the mainland too. 

So, the location advantage is what The Loop can offer, and it becomes a very important part of the Northern metropolis. And therefore, we spend no effort, including the committee that you mentioned, to ensure the early delivery of The Loop.

Chan: Kevin, before we go to the break, a very important question is, in order for everything to succeed, you must have people coming to invest to joining our Loop and also talents. So, how does this Hong Kong Park, or The Loop, differentiate from other ones that we have, and so that we'll be able to strengthen our attraction. I know that you look at policy measures or incentives or even industrial positioning. In short, how do we do it?

Choi: At the very first beginning, we first, of course, invest in it ourselves first. Therefore, the batch one of phase one of The Loop, the government has been putting in money to invest and to build eight buildings of it, and three of which are now ready to move in by now. And we are very happy that the park company, which is fully funded by the government and chaired by me personally.

Chan: Right.

Choi: We have been very successful in leasing out these floor space. We don't lease them out cheaply.

Chan: Right.

Choi: But actually, on that part, we have found that we have just launched it for a few months. We have already, like, 80 percent of occupancy. All these enterprises, they are not just attracted by The Loop. Of course, it has a very natural, very green environment, but it is also actually quite remote from the city center. So, why are they moving in at such an early stage when they become the real early attendants? They really find the location, as well as the policy initiatives that I have just mentioned, are very attractive to them, to get into the mainland market or for the mainland enterprises to go overseas, too. We will mention a little bit more on how this, The Loop, and also the lateral extension, which will be the San Tin Technopole.

Chan: Right.

Choi: These are the growth engines in the Northern Metropolis that we will adopt an industry-led approach to ensure that enterprises will take place in, and also take some steer in how these places will be developed.

Chan: Well, Kevin, time for a short break now, we will be back with more Straight Talk.

Chan: Thank you for staying with us. We are joined by Kevin Choi, the permanent secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, as we continue our discussion on Hong Kong's progress on the vision of building a competitive international I&T hub. So, Kevin, in the first half, you listed out the importance of I&T and what we have been doing. I am just wanting to know that you are, I mean I read that they said it is called a “move-in while construction continues” approach, so the enterprise can actually start operation earlier. As you said, they want to move in not just because it is a greener environment, although it is quite far. So, what are the measures have you sort of taken to help streamline the procedures, remove the barriers, and facilitate this accelerated moving process? This is something that is very unique to this term of government.

Choi: Sure. Thank you Eugene. I think the very important thing on how to have the early delivery of the loop and also to ensure that it is successful is that we have to, first of all, drive for result, drive for quick delivery too. So, on this particular part, we want … the government has already, as I said, invested into the first batch, the first eight buildings, it will be funded by the government, and three of them have already been ready for occupants, as I said. But the remaining five buildings, they will also be ready very soon. But this is only the start. We really want to ensure that the market knows what we are doing, and we are also partnering with the private sector to do.

We are doing something more unique in this particular park is that we want to have the remaining of the batch one to adopt other PPP models, the public-private-participatory models. For example, we want private sector, they can actually get a whole lot to do their own building or they can partner with us to do joint ventures, to do joint investment into the land parcels of the remaining batch one. And therefore, we have the idea of what you have just mentioned, what we call where we want to move in as quick as possible, but even though the other parts are only, the construction of which, all the investment of which, are underway. And we want to ensure that the park will be opened by phases, the enterprises therein can have the locational and also policy advantages they can enjoy as soon as possible.

Chan: Right.

Choi: At the same time we also want to ensure that there are indeed private investment, who can come from overseas, who can come from the mainland, who can come from local. They may have like financial resources accessed in the financial market. They can now invest into this particular area of the park to ensure that the buildings there, the investment there, the equipment there, are fit for the purpose for them to do the R&D, to do some midstream investment too, to flourish the I&T ecosystem there.

San Tin Technopole

Chan: Right. Maybe we move on to another area called the San Tin Technopole, which you mentioned a bit earlier in the show, which is what we call a cornerstone of the Northern Metropolis plan. So, what is the Technopole? And what is it? How can it help an I&T strategy?

Choi: Let's talk indeed the San Tin Technopole. The Loop itself is like an 87-hectare piece of land located in Lok Ma Chau across to the Kwu Tung. That alone is already like four times Pak Shek Kok Science Park. So, I am already building four science parks at the same time. But that is not the end of the game. The more important part is the natural extension of The Loop entering into the San Tin. And San Tin, we call it San Tin Technopole, it is an even bigger area. It is like 210 hectare or like 10 Science Park of the size. You can imagine that we need these 10 Science Parks, what are we going to do with it? We are going to actually divide it into like three hubs and also three corridors.

These three hubs we call Hetao Hub, Chau Tau Hub, as well as Ki Lun Hub. It is on their location. But these three corridors, we will be focusing on life and health technology, AI and robotics, microelectronics, as well as advanced industry. So, there are three particular corridors, which we want to flourish three different kinds of I&Ts, but they are all very important industry sector that we have set out in our earlier I&T blueprint that Hong Kong should do and also should help the country to develop.

In the San Tin Technopole, we have also a very unique feature that we have reserved some strategic white space, which means that we haven't decided what exactly the industry sector will be there. It is at the Ki Lun Hub because we know that in the coming 8-10 years, the San Tin Technopole, we will develop these 10 science parks so to speak, we will develop it in phases because it is so vast, it is only natural for us to go by phases. We believe it is like 8-10 years. But in 8-10 years’ time, there must be evolvement or evolution of technology. So, we decide to reserve some white space there. So, San Tin Technopole will be a very important area and a much bigger area than The Loop in the Northern Metropolis that we want to flourish. And also we want to take the lead to ensure that this term government, we have been always saying that we want industry-led development in the Northern Metropolis. This is a very important part to ensure that Hong Kong as a whole can grow.

Chan: Right. Kevin, since you have mentioned a very important area that the businesses must move in, so what we call a capable government must have a sort of efficient market. Actually, the conceptual outline is proposing a dedicated company to drive the project. So, will the government adopt this model and set up such an entity?

Choi: Oh, yes, Eugene, you are absolutely right. In terms of development model, we are indeed considering setting up a dedicated company to take forward the development of the San Tin Technopole. This company can therefore collaborate with the market and leverage market resources. And in fact, The Loop company has been also doing a very similar thing. It is chaired by me, it is fully funded by the government. So, the San Tin Technopole Dedicated Company, may I use this name as of now, it will likely take a two-tier corporate structure. The first tier of it will be very similar to The Loop Company too. It will be fully owned by the government, it will be funded by the government too. And so that the policy direction and also the corporate direction will be fully in line with the government's vision in developing San Tin Technopole into the real I&T hub in Hong Kong. But the first-tier company can then evolve into a lot of second-tier companies.

What these second-tier companies could do is for the first-tier dedicated company, to collaborate with the various enterprises. They can be from life and health, they can be from AI, they can be from robotics. So they can do their buildings, they can do their investment in those areas. They can build small parks within the big parks. These small parks, these buildings, these laboratories, they can be doing like build-operate-transform model, build-own-operate models, design-build-finance-operate models, etc. These models facilitate the enterprises to form joint ventures with the government, to invest into the parks, to invest into these laboratories, to do their own I&T thing. The government will not be the best in investment, to be frank, but these enterprises are. They will help to find the right things to do, they will innovate, they will give I&T the most importance.

Way forward

Chan: Kevin, I am going to ask you a direct question. We have to be very brief because of time. I&T is something that is not very visible, it takes time for things to flourish. How will Hong Kong people benefit from it in brief?

Choi: I would say that you will see very soon that The Loop is going to open very soon within this month.

Chan: Right.

Choi: I am going to take everybody to go to take a look and see that actually, what I mentioned that we are developing four Science Parks in five years' time, versus the science park has been done in 10-20 years' time for one science park. We are like tripling or even speeding up more in The Loop development. And I am quite sure that the real benefits, you can see the bubbling talents, the business are coming up, the small companies grow into the bigger ones, they can go listed, they can go overseas, they can go mainland. All these are job opportunities, as well as good opportunities for Hong Kong. And Hong Kong will thrive together with the nation in achieving our status as the international I&T center, as depicted and as asked by the nation in its 14th Five-Year Plan, and likely recommended in the 15th Five-Year Plan too.

Chan: Kevin, I am afraid that is all the time we have. And thank you very much for walking us through the actual mindset and actually what you are doing. Your discussion highlights actually both the opportunities and challenges in building Hong Kong into a global I&T center. We will be watching closely on how initiatives, like the Hong Kong Park and San Tin Technopole, translate into innovation, new jobs, and a stronger economy in the years ahead. Have a good evening and see you next week!