Beijing pitches in for Hong Kong's IT sector upgrade

Two state-backed laboratories will be built in the SAR’s science park.

Beijing is planning on setting up two state-backed laboratories in Hong Kong’s science park in an effort to boost the SAR’s innovation and technology sector following a meeting by top officials in the Chinese capital, reports South China Morning Post. 

“The Chinese Academy of Sciences will establish an affiliated organisation in Hong Kong and arrange for two of its institutes to set up [branches] at the science park,” chief executive Carrie Lam told SCMP, referring to the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health and the Institute of Automation in Beijing.

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Beijing has also agreed to establish a Greater Bay Area (GBA) academicians’ alliance which will be made up of top academics from Macau, Guangdong and some 40 Hong Kong members of either the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Moreover, the Ministry of Science and Technology is expected to ink an agreement with Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Bureau to foster technological cooperation.

A meeting attended by top officials including CE Lam, Macau CE Fernando Chui and vice-premier Han Zheng composed the first working group meeting to strategise steps for the GBA project.

CE Lam revealed after the meeting that the working group had made significant decisions to boost Hong Kong’s IT sector and roll out social policies for the city’s residents living, working or travelling in the nine mainland cities included in the bay area project but have yet to reveal specific details.