Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (second right) talks to a worker while visiting one of the production sites of CuMask+ in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong on May 6, 2020. (PHOTO / INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT/ HKSAR)
Hong Kong’s high-tech products used to fight the coronavirus pandemic have drawn interest from around the world, showing the special administrative region’s prowess in innovation and technology, industry players said.
During the pandemic, Hong Kong-designed products, including smart wristbands used to monitor people under quarantine, as well as reusable masks and temperature-taking robots, have facilitated residents’ daily lives while gaining recognition from the world community.
During the pandemic, Hong Kong-designed products, including smart wristbands used to monitor people under quarantine, as well as reusable masks and temperature-taking robots, have facilitated residents’ daily lives while gaining recognition from the world community
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The wristband was developed by the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre, a government-funded research and development institute.
Simon Wong Kwong-yeung, chief executive officer of the center, told China Daily that about 20 countries and regions, such as Israel, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, have shown interest in the design and application of the wristbands.
Bermuda, a British overseas territory, has purchased 1,000 electronic wristbands from Hong Kong and adopted them in local quarantine measures, according to Wong.
Another government-funded R&D institute, Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel, developed a reusable mask with its award-winning reusable fabric technology. The mask can be washed and reused up to 60 times. The masks were distributed to residents free of charge in May, June and September.
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Wong said the pandemic pushes the city’s inno-tech industry forward as it creates new demands and scenarios that motivate researchers to transfer inno-tech results into products.
“The pandemic created more opportunities for the inno-tech industry,” he said. It took the center only one day to design the first product after it got the task of wristband designing.
“Without the funding, our staff’s commitment or R&D in the past few years, we couldn’t have completed the task,” Wong said.
He said the public-health crisis has made people realize that only technology “can help the world solve such problems”.
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“So more funding should be invested into the technology R&D field to ensure we can deal with similar crises with science and technology in the future,” he said.
Echoing Wong, Chan Chingchuen, Hong Kong’s first academic at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Engineering, agreed that the pandemic creates opportunities for inno-tech development, adding the city should grab the chance and proactively get involved in the fight against COVID-19, including accelerating vaccine development and putting more e ffort into research on the virus.
According to an innovation survey on the technology industry by accounting firm and advisory network KPMG this year, over the next four years, Hong Kong will become the 10th-leading technology innovation hub, joining the ranks of tech centers like San Francisco, which boasts Silicon Valley in California.
Chan, also an honorary professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong, said Hong Kong has strength to develop as a leading inno-tech center, but the city currently lacks research and development institutes compared with Silicon Valley.
The scholar noted that Hong Kong private companies have shown scant interest in local R&D institutions despite the city’s ability to create technology products that meet market needs.
The Innovation and Technology Bureau said in 2017 that Hong Kong’s R&D expenditure accounted for just 0.73 percent of the city’s gross domestic product, with public investment hitting 55 percent and the private sector at 45 percent.
In other developed economies, private-sector R&D investment usually exceeds that of the government. In Singapore, for instance, the public-private sector investment ratio for research and development is 39:61.
Funding expanding
In an interview with China Daily in mid-September, Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang said the government will continue to expand its funding for local research institutes and technology enterprises, and provide more resources to lure top inno-tech professionals from around the world.
Besides government financial support, Chan urged Hong Kong’s conglomerates to take the lead in lifting the inno-tech industry and invest in R&D to promote inno-tech development. He said small and medium-sized companies in Hong Kong will follow suit after major enterprises get the ball rolling.
This would push the city’s economy to undergo a new structural transformation, Chan said.
“The investment and support in inno-tech programs provided by local enterprises in the past years should not be ignored,” said Lam Chi-wing, chairman of the executive board of Compass Innovation Alliance.
As the global economy faces a gloomy future, he said, the crisis will force the city’s companies in traditional industries to dip their toes in emerging industries and make them think about how to keep their own competitiveness with advanced science and technology.
Lam, also an entrepreneur and vice-chairman of the One Country Two Systems Youth Forum, a Hong Kong-based think tank, said leading technology companies’ secondary listings in Hong Kong have a positive effect on the city’s inno-tech environment.
This will not only attract more capital, from both the Chinese mainland and overseas, but also let more investors keep tuned into the inno-tech field’s latest development.
“This is good news for Hong Kong’s inno-tech atmosphere,” Lam added.
