Hong Kong’s reindustrialization push advanced with the official opening on Tuesday of a new intelligent production center for nano materials, which is expected to help in driving transformation and upgrading the city’s traditional industries.

With government funding of HK$15 million ($1.92 million), the production center of Nanoshields Technology, located at Tseung Kwan O InnoPark, is among the first batch of projects that have been granted subsidies from the Innovation and Technology Commission’s new industrialization program.

“The project demonstrates the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s concrete support for developing new quality productive forces and promoting new industrialization. It also shows the effectiveness and potential of collaboration among ‘government, industry, academia and research’,” Sun Dong, secretary for innovation, technology and industry, said at the opening ceremony of the production center on Tuesday.

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To speed up reindustrialization in the city, Sun said that applications for the HK$10 billion New Industrialization Acceleration Scheme will open soon.

The program, which was announced by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his 2023 Policy Address in October, aims to promote the downstream development of new industrialization.

Financial assistance will be provided for enterprises in life and health technologies, artificial intelligence and data science, advanced manufacturing, and new energy technologies.

New intelligent production facilities will be granted up to HK$200 million in cash support in a pairing format between the SAR government and enterprises.

The program will also offer help to enterprises in strategic sectors in hiring research talent.

Sun emphasized the importance of collaboration with mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the process of reindustrialization, with Hong Kong focusing on research and development, transformation of scientific research achievements, and small-scale production of core components while mainland cities in the region are responsible for large-scale production of applied products.

“It is not only necessary but also feasible to develop new quality productive forces based on local conditions, promote new industrialization, and expedite the formation of a new real economy with Hong Kong edges,” the I&T chief said.

The complementary development of Hong Kong and GBA mainland cities will help build a more comprehensive and globally competitive I&T industry chain, thus serving the country’s high-quality development, he said.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster continued to rank second globally in I&T capabilities for the fifth consecutive year, according to the Global Innovation Index 2024, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization on Tuesday.

“The GBA international I&T center plays an important strategic role in the national science and technology innovation system,” a government spokesperson said.

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“Hong Kong will continue to promote I&T development by strengthening basic research capabilities, enhancing the local I&T ecosystem, accelerating the transformation and commercialization of research and development outcomes, and promoting new industrialization to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces in accordance with local strengths,” the spokesperson continued.

Alex Wong Siu-wah, founder of Nanoshields Technology, said Hong Kong has abundant talent and prominent universities to support scientific research.

“We have various cooperation projects with five local universities ranked in the global top 100 list on science and research projects. If the government and investors can take full advantage of the city’s rich talent resources, it will positively promote Hong Kong’s reindustrialization,” he said.

Contact the writer at thor_wu@chinadailyhk.com