Experts and stakeholders are pushing for wider roles for the mega Northern Metropolis project and its twin innovation hubs -- University Town and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone – ahead of the unveiling of Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year development plan and the annual Policy Address on Wednesday.

The priorities include closer university-industry collaboration, efficient transport, cross-border flow of research production factors and a coordinated division of labor within the new town.

Tim Cheng Kwang-ting -- vice-president for research and development at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology -- suggested that the city take a leaf from leading global practices by combining top universities and companies, or set up on-campus innovation parks to facilitate industry-university-research collaboration.

He told China Daily that, in the past, universities used to send research outcomes that are commercially ready to industrial sites. But, he hopes that, in the Northern Metropolis, closer university-industry exchanges happen at the source, while research is still underway at universities.

“We need to create, in the new town, an ecosystem to enable daily and deeply interdependent interaction between the academic and industrial sides,” Cheng said.

He cited the Silicon Valley that’s fueled by first-class institutions of higher learning, Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, as talent pool and research powerhouses.

Other good cases in point include the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, which received government land specifically for student-enterprise collaboration in innovation, and some German institutions that have set up on-campus innovation parks to strengthen ties with industries.

Cheng believes that fostering closer university-industry collaboration is also a key factor when the government approves applications for land at University Town from interested parties.

He also highlighted the need for smooth transportation to link up the three locations in order to maximize the cluster effect of University Town.

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In-the-making University Town is formed by three distinct sites, located separately in Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen, Ngau Tam Mei and the New Territories North New Town. They’re expected to be in use in 2026, 2028 and 2030, respectively.

Hong Kong think tank, One Country, Two Systems Youth Forum, called for an industry demand-driven collaboration mechanism at University Town -- a model in which “enterprises set the questions and universities answer them”. It said the special administrative region’s five-year development blueprint and this year’s Policy Address should adopt a consolidated approach in planning University Town land, focusing on large facilities beyond the capacity of individual universities or enterprises, such as shared laboratories and pilot testing platforms.

For the Hetao cooperation zone, strengthening institutional innovation should be given top priority, said Victor Kwok Hoi-kit, deputy research director of Our Hong Kong Foundation -- one of the city's largest think tanks.

Noting the strong market response to the Hetao zone’s Hong Kong Park, he said the main bottleneck concerns cross-border flow mechanisms for key research factors -- talent, bio-samples, data and capital that have not been fully in place in the past year.

He noted that the Northern Metropolis Development Bill -- gazetted in July and aimed to be passed this year -- authorizes regulations to facilitate specified cross-boundary flows. However, the first batch of subsidiary legislation covers only the flow of authorized personnel for Hong Kong Park.

Kwok urged the SAR government to shed more light on cross-boundary flow mechanisms for key research production factors in the new Policy Address and five-year plan, with a clear timetable.

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He pointed out that Hetao alone can’t support a complete industrial chain, and proposed coordinated roles for Northern Metropolis innovation projects -- Hetao zone for research and pilot testing, San Tin Technopole for prototype manufacturing and mass production, and Hung Shui Kiu Industry Park as an advanced manufacturing and logistics hub.

Contact the writer at amberwu@chinadailyhk.com