Hong Kong will grow tech sector with input from experts like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang: Paul Chan Hong Kong will go all out to build an ecosystem for innovation and technology development by gathering talent with innovative perspectives, the financial secretary has said, after a dinner with US chipmaker Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang and other I&T experts on Saturday. In his weekly blog on Sunday, Paul Chan Mo-po shared a photograph of himself at the dinner with industry heavyweights at a local Chinese restaurant in Sham Shui Po, with bottles of beer and a copy of the South China Morning Post on the table. Apart from Huang, the attendees included Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) president Nancy Ip, the founder of Chinese venture capital firm HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia China, Neil Shen Nanpeng, and computer scientist and university council chairman Harry Shum Heung-yeung. HKUST pro-chancellor John Chan Cho-chak, treasurer Stephen Yiu Kin-wah and university court chairman Andrew Liao Cheung-sing and council vice-chairwoman Edith Shih were also present. “These are the pioneers of the world’s IT sector, local academics and research and development experts, we had exchanges in developing IT and cultivating talent while sharing very local food,” Chan said. “The combination of Hong Kong’s flavour and IT visions represents the two key elements of an ecosystem: innovative perspectives and the cluster of talent.” Earlier in the day, Huang, along with three others including film star Tony Leung Chiu-wai, received honorary doctorates from the university. Huang, a Taiwanese-American who founded California-based Nvidia 25 years ago, was honoured for his visionary leadership that steered the company into a global leader in computer engineering and graphics processing unit technologies. In his blog, Chan also elaborated on the government’s blueprint for developing the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, which aims to attract talent, create wealth and transform strategic industries. The new I&T hub co-developed by Hong Kong and Shenzhen would boost the flow of personnel, capital and data with two different social, economic and judicial systems coexisting geographically in the same loop. The park would be developed in two phases, starting with the western end of the site. The gross floor area of the first-phase development would be doubled to 100 hectares (247 acres) for laboratories, advanced manufacturing, industry-academia research bases, talent accommodation and commercial facilities. Chan said the development on the park was proceeding as scheduled and would begin operations in 2025 after the first three buildings on the Hong Kong side were completed at the end of this year. The first batch of tenants, coming from life and health technology, artificial intelligence, data science and other core industries, would start moving in next year. The western site’s five remaining buildings would be completed in the coming five years. According to the blueprint, the first phase in Hong Kong would be completed by 2030, while its Shenzhen counterpart would be finished five years later. “Based on the 87 million population in the Greater Bay Area, we will have a bigger edge on attracting more local and overseas pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies to conduct clinical testing and registration in Hong Kong,” Chan said. “This will boost Hong Kong’s development to be a first-tier approval mechanism for drug registration and help the city become an international medical innovation hub.” The bay area combines Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong into a technology-led economic zone, meant to rival the United States’ Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong told a radio show that the hub would operate under the principle of “one zone, two parks”, a model highlighting and mirroring the success of China’s “one country, two systems” governing principle. Sun added that deeper integration with the bay area would help Hong Kong to mitigate a potential rise in geopolitical risks after the election of Donald Trump as the next US president. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3287899/hong-kong-will-grow-it-sector-talent-such-nvidias-jensen-huang-paul-chan (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post