Hong Kong’s allure as a magnet for tech talents worldwide is becoming unassailable, with applications for this year’s internship program at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation hitting an all-time high of over 5,000, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his Sunday blog.
The competition is indeed tough. Just 450 applicants have been successful. Two-thirds of them are from the world’s top 50 universities, including premier institutions in Europe and the United States, and nearly 30 percent are international students.
To bolster the special administrative region’s vision of proactively trawling the world for talents, the city has launched various talent admission programs since 2022. So far, some 500,000 applications have been received, of which 330,000 have been given the nod, and about 220,000 individuals have set foot on Hong Kong, Chan said.
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Citing the meteoric rise of homegrown artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, the finance chief urged young people to set their sights on the innovation-and-technology sector, which stands as the “key pathway” to success for those with the foresight to jump on the bandwagon.
Chan recently had an exchange with young talents from HKSTP-based startups. “Hong Kong’s unwavering commitment to innovation and technology, its strong support for startups, the diverse and inclusive environment that lures talents from around the world, and its close connection with the vast markets and manufacturing base of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are all compelling reasons for them to migrate with their feet to Hong Kong and pursue a career in the promising sector,” he said.
The SAR is betting big on AI. In recent years, the concept of “AI Plus” has become one of the city’s strategic priorities in attracting global investments, encouraging specialized tech enterprises to go public in Hong Kong, and accelerating the development of the local startup ecosystem, Chan said.
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Adding momentum to Hong Kong’s tech-powered future, a thematic pop-up display area, as outlined in this year’s Budget, has been added to the city’s major exhibitions to showcase high-quality innovative technology products to local, as well as overseas buyers and consumers.
At this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair -- the city’s decades-old premier literary event that kicked off on July 16 in its 35th edition for a seven-day run -- Chan invited a dozen elementary students to visit the thematic pop-up display area of innovation and technology to plant the seed of innovation into the future generation, and give Hong Kong’s own story of technology resonance and reach among a younger audience.
