Published: 10:25, June 25, 2025 | Updated: 10:53, June 25, 2025
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Hong Kong facilitates mainland startups’ global expansion
By Stephy Zhang and Stacy Shi in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Science Park enhances intl outreach through tailored services

The Hong Kong Science Park on Tuesday welcomed a high-level visiting media delegation, reaffirming its commitment to leveraging its comprehensive services and well-established networks to support Chinese mainland companies’ global expansion.

On Tuesday, the park hosted about 50 journalists from across the country, who are on an eight-day trip that started on Monday. The trip aims to document recent progress in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

During a briefing, representatives from the park highlighted its effort to supporting mainland companies’ global expansion through communication services, market guidance, and dedicated partnership-facilitation platforms.

These initiatives form part of the park’s broader mission as an international innovation bridge, channeling global professionals, capital, and technologies toward the mainland while assisting domestic firms in global outreach.

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Derek Chim, head of startup ecosystems and development at the park, said that the park has a tailored milestone management system, with which dedicated project managers conduct biannual reviews with companies to identify operational challenges and plan market approaches.

He said the park employs targeted strategies to address challenges faced by startups, such as providing overseas accommodation and networking services for companies in critical stages of overseas market expansion.

The park’s exhibition-support framework also facilitates 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 prearranged partner meetings, Chim added.

With about 2,300 resident companies — half of them startups — the park has supported 13 unicorn enterprises and maintains collaborative channels with manufacturing hubs across the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area, 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, established in 2008 with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

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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 — the sole agricultural project under the SAR government’s inaugural Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme.

These crops — already planted across 1.5 million mu (100,000 hectares) of marginal lands in Northwest China — demonstrate dual benefits: increasing farming income by 120 million yuan ($16.7 million) since 2016, and, in the meantime, reducing synthetic fertilizer use, thereby 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. It aims to boost farmer incomes and advance agricultural technology, supported by the SAR government.

The visiting journalists also toured Ocean Park’s Giant Panda Habitat and visited Hong Kong’s newly born twin pandas, Jia Jia and De De.

Contact the writers at stephyzhang@chinadailyhk.com