The Hong Kong Science Park on Tuesday said it is dedicated to leveraging its comprehensive services and well-developed networks to support Chinese mainland companies' global expansion.
On Tuesday, the park welcomed a delegation of about 50 journalists from across the nation. They are on an eight-day trip that started on Monday to document recent progress in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
Representatives from the park briefed reporters that the park is leveraging its mature ecosystem to support mainland companies' global expansion through facilitating project communication strategies, advising on market selection, and establishing dedicated partnership matching platforms.
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These initiatives form part of the park’s broader mission as an international innovation bridge, channeling global talent, capital and technology toward the mainland while assisting domestic firms in global outreach.
Derek Chim, head of startup ecosystems and development at the park, emphasized that the park's tailored milestone management system where dedicated project managers conduct bi-annual reviews with companies to identify operational challenges and strategize market approaches.
He said the park can address various kinds of challenges faced by startups, such as providing overseas accommodation and networking services for companies, which are in critical stages of overseas market expansion.
The park’s exhibition-support framework can also facilitate clients’ participation in major international events including the Consumer Electronics Show in the US, the Mobile World Congress in Spain, and Viva Technology in France, enhancing visibility through centralized pavilions and pre-arranged partner meetings, Chim said.
With about 2,300 resident companies — half of them being startups — the park has supported 13 unicorn enterprises and maintains collaborative channels with manufacturing hubs across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), including Dongguan and Shenzhen, to bolster product development cycles.
Chim also introduced the park’s active engagement with businesses in the Yangtze River Delta through its partnerships with the Hangzhou Innovation Incubation Center, underscoring cross-regional synergies in scaling mainland innovations globally.
The journalist delegation, organized by the All-China Journalists' Association, is set to explore key tourism, technology, and economic landmarks in both cities and is engaging in discussions with local officials and entrepreneurs.
On Tuesday afternoon, the delegation visited the Chinese University of Hong Kong's State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, which was established in 2008 with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Lam Hon-ming, director of the laboratory, said its research extends beyond academic frontiers into tangible industrial applications.
Lam's team is commercializing salt-tolerant soybean varieties cultivated through genomic innovation, which is the sole agricultural project under the SAR government's inaugural “Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme.”
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These crops — already planted across 1.5 million mu (100,000 hectares) of marginal lands in Northwest China — demonstrate dual impacts: increasing farming income by 120 million yuan ($16.7 million) since 2016 while reducing synthetic fertilizer use, and directly supporting national carbon neutrality goals.
The project also targets high-value functional foods for aging populations through deep processing, bridging laboratory breakthroughs with silver economy demands via aerospace biotech partnerships, while advancing farmer incomes and agricultural technology, all supported by the SAR government.
The visiting journalists also toured Ocean Park's Giant Panda Habitat on Tuesday morning, observing the activities of Hong Kong's twin pandas, Jia Jia and De De, that were born in the city last year.
Contact the writers at stephyzhang@chinadailyhk.com
