Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu (back row, center), Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po (back row, third left), other officials and representatives of strategic enterprises attend the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) partnership signing ceremony at the Central Government Office on March 20, 2024. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

A total of 25 strategic enterprises signed agreements with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Wednesday, demonstrating their commitment to either establishing or expanding their bases in the city to connect their businesses to the world, while promoting the development of the innovation and technology industry.

Representatives of these enterprises — from sectors including life and health technology, artificial intelligence and data science, financial technology, advanced manufacturing and new energy technology — joined the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) partnership signing ceremony to show their commitment to settling in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu speaks during the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) partnership signing ceremony at the Central Government Office on March 20, 2024. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the signing of the two OASES partnership agreements, in October last year and on Wednesday, has facilitated some 50 strategic companies in establishing or expanding their businesses; collectively, this will bring more than HK$40 billion ($5.11 billion) in investments into the city’s economy, while creating some 13,000 jobs over the next few years. It will also encourage different upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises from related industrial chains to settle in Hong Kong.

“Their presence here will create an important momentum, and help to attract a wealth of partners and related companies to Hong Kong. In turn, they will bolster our fast-rising innovation and technology sector,” the chief executive said at the signing ceremony.

OASES will continue to reach out to strategic enterprises. This year, it will meet with more than 300 of them from around the world.  And I have no doubt that there will be more significant signings in the months, and years, to come.

Paul Chan Mo-po, Financial Secretary

In addition, the chief executive emphasized Hong Kong’s long-standing strengths in finance, intellectual property protection and connectivity, its multilingual and multi-talented workforce, as well as its pool of world-class universities and research institutions — factors that will enable technology transfers, attract foreign investment and create the cross-boundary collaborations that drive the innovation and technology industry.

“OASES will continue to reach out to strategic enterprises. This year, it will meet with more than 300 of them from around the world.  And I have no doubt that there will be more significant signings in the months, and years, to come,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said.

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The finance chief added that the SAR government will continue to support the commercialization of research outcomes and new industrialization, nurture local startups and talent, enhance STEM education, and boost the compelling collaboration with Hong Kong’s sister cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po speaks during the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) partnership signing ceremony at the Central Government Office on March 20, 2024. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

Among the 25 key companies that signed contracts on Wednesday, six are strategic companies introduced in October last year, while 19 are from the second batch of companies. Of these 19 companies, 14 are from the Chinese mainland, including UBTECH Robotics Corp and Nuance Pharma, and five are from the United States, including logistics payment platform PayCargo and biotech firm BioMap.

Representatives of these four key enterprises all agreed that the passage of the Safeguarding National Security Bill on Tuesday would enable Hong Kong to have a more stable business environment. They also said that maintaining bases in Hong Kong would not only enhance their deal-making opportunities, but could also be leveraged to enhance their business connectivity in the global arena.

Hong Kong can offer a lot of research and development collaboration opportunities because there is good infrastructure and an innovative culture within the universities.

Michael Tam, chief brand officer at UBTECH

“The Chinese mainland is the largest origin market for our customers, which are international logistics companies and which all have businesses on the mainland. We believe Hong Kong provides a very stable platform to grow business in Hong Kong and beyond,” said PayCargo’s Asia commercial director, Morgan Law, in a group interview on Wednesday.

Michael Tam, chief brand officer at UBTECH, said his robotics firm has chosen to set up shop in Hong Kong for a variety of reasons.

“Hong Kong can offer a lot of research and development collaboration opportunities because there is good infrastructure and an innovative culture within the universities,” Tam said.

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The brand officer also pointed out that Hong Kong is a talent hub, enabling his company to source different types of talent. And the city is also a traditional and innovative financial center.

“As our scale of business grows, we have to serve customers on a global scale. The establishment of the Hong Kong office will be the innovation hub, part of our ecosystem to serve our customers and our scientific communities on a global scale,” said Liu Wei, CEO of BioMap.