Stirring ideas from 'dai pai dong summit'

Henry Siu

Innovative perspectives and gathering talent are crucial to the development of an innovation ecology in Hong Kong, says Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who shared a meal with experts and proponents that included Jensen Huang Jen-hsun, founder of tech giant Nvidia.

"This gathering - with innovative views and a Hong Kong taste - represents the two important elements of building a thriving innovation ecology - an innovative perspective and gathering of talent," Chan wrote on his blog yesterday.

It was held at a dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po with a number of distinguished innovators and academic leaders in attendance, Chan said.

Apart from Huang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology president Nancy Chu Ip Yuk-yu and HKUST council chairman Harry Shum Heung-yeung were also present.

"We shared authentic Hong Kong stir-fry and flavorful traditional Hong Kong dishes while we exchanged our views on IT development and talent cultivation," Chan said.

He said he met several enterprises that have expressed interest in Hong Kong's IT development when he visited advanced economies spanning the United States and Europe, as well as the Middle East and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"They are eager to know more about the development and application of cutting-edge technology and the development of its relevant manufacturing industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area for more opportunities of cooperation," he said.

Chan said the development of the Hong Kong section of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone has been accelerated, coupled with the substantial investment in information technology made in recent years. He believes the local IT sector would further develop in the direction of industrial development, being an important part of driving Hong Kong's economy.

Nvidia founder Huang, 61, was among four individuals conferred honorary doctorates by HKUST. Huang received his doctorate alongside actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, 2013 Nobel chemistry laureate Michael Levitt and field medalist David Mumford.

In a speech on Saturday, Huang, conferred an honorary doctorate degree in engineering, said "the age of AI has started - a new computing era that will impact every industry and every field of science."

Huang also told university graduates that he wished he could have started his career now.

"The whole world is resetting. You're at the starting lines with everybody else. An industry is being reinvented. You now have the instruments, the instruments necessary to advance science in so many different fields," he said.

Asked about the possibility of US president-elect Donald Trump restricting the export of semiconductors against China and how the China-US trade war would affect AI development, Huang said AI development is global and will not be stopped.

henry.siu@singtaonewscorp.com