Gov’t unveils plans to promote I&T and health tech sectors

The gov’t allocated over $25b for projects in these sectors.

The government allocates $3b to Cyberport to launch a 3-year AI Subsidy Scheme aimed at supporting scientific breakthroughs.

The funding will also be used to strengthen cybersecurity and data protection capabilities and to launch promotional and educational activities.

This is part of the government’s commitment to enhance Hong Kong’s I&T infrastructure, research capacity, and talent pipelines to establish Hong Kong as an international I&T centre.

Cyberport will also establish an AI Supercomputing Centre to meet the demands of research institutes and industry for computing power which is set to commence operations this year.

In addition, the government will also establish the Hong Kong Microelectronics Research and Development Institute this year to facilitate research collaborations on third-gen semiconductors amongst relevant institutions.

To support the health tech sector, Hong Kong will allocate $6b to provide subsidies for local universities to collaborate with Mainland and overseas organizations in setting up research institutes.

The $6b fund will be taken from the previously allocated $10b for the sector’s development.

Moreover, the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute will also be set up this year to attract more pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises to conduct clinical trials in Hong Kong. 

A further $10b will be used to launch the New Industrialisation Acceleration Scheme to finance enterprises in the health tech, AI and data science, advanced manufacturing, and new energy technology sectors.

This initiative is expected to attract 50-100 enterprises to invest $20b in Hong Kong.

To attract top-level life and health research teams and talent, the government set up InnoLife Healthtech Hub along with $2b funding for InnoHK and $200m to assist startups.

Lastly, the government will provide subsidies worth $16m to 8 UGC-funded universities from 2024-25 onward to strengthen technology transfer and marketing services.