Tech roadmap to be rolled out

Hong Kong has invested more than HK$150 billion to support the development of innovation and technology over the past five years, and is drawing up a blueprint for technology development over the next 5 to 10 years, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his blog.

The government spent HK$10 billion to establish InnoHK Clusters in May to promote global scientific research cooperation. So far, the platform has successfully attracted more than 30 top universities and research institutions at home and abroad to cooperate with similar institutions.

Besides, in more than 20 years since the launch of the Innovation and Technology Fund, it has nurtured a lot of research and development, start-ups and also attracted a lot of private investment.

Annual expenses of the fund increased from over HK$700 million in 2013-14 to about HK$4 billion in 2021-22, Chan said, adding that in the past five years, nearly HK$5.8 billion has been provided to local R&D institutions and companies.

Through the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities, six universities have been provided with funding to help the commercialization of their R&D efforts.