Hong Kong’s Paul Chan to lead delegation to Italy to showcase tech, boost trade Hong Kong’s finance chief will lead an 80-strong delegation to Italy this week to showcase the city’s technological breakthroughs and forge closer business ties, with a robotic start-up saying it has already secured orders from European counterparts. The Science Park told the Post it would invite eight of its start-up companies from industries, ranging from artificial intelligence and robotics to digital health and green mobility, to attend the Trade Development Council’s flagship event, “Think Business Think Hong Kong” symposium in Milan on Thursday. The event aims to present Hong Kong as the “superconnector” and “super value-adder”, helping firms in the city and mainland China “go global” while linking Italian enterprises to the growth of the Greater Bay Area through business matching sessions. Before meeting Italian government representatives and enterprises in Milan, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po will head to the United Kingdom to meet the business community at the annual “Hong Kong Dinner in London”, organised by the council. Ahead of the symposium, new park CEO Terry Wong Ping-sau expressed hopes of attracting more European and Italian companies interested in tapping into the markets in Hong Kong, the mainland and elsewhere in Asia. “Our core mission is to solidify Hong Kong’s role as the indispensable dual gateway – the nexus for global innovation where technology and capital seamlessly flow both East and West,” Wong said. “This strategy maximises the unique ecosystem effects of our position, driving growth for all our international partners.” Italy is the city’s fourth-largest trading partner and the third-largest import market among all European Union countries. In 2024, trade transactions between Italy and Hong Kong reached US$8.3 billion. According to the council’s research, 77 per cent of 172 Italian businesses being interviewed in the region said they were strongly committed to Asian expansion, prioritising the mainland and Hong Kong markets. Among them, 93 per cent believed Hong Kong could effectively support future expansion plans, citing its status as a strategic gateway and logistics hub. Wong said Hong Kong’s research and development in certain strategic areas such as digital technology, green mobility and life health technology would excel in Italy. Roy Lim Long-hei, founder and CEO of Robocore, said his company had secured orders from Italy after developing its revenue-generating US telemedicine model. Established in 2019, Robocore is a partner company of the Science Park and a Hong Kong distributor of Israeli-made Temi robots. “Up to now in Italy, they have already bought 200 units, applying the same model within their healthcare system,” Lim said. “These 200 units are just the first proof of concept … Italy has 10,000 such elderly homes.” Lim added his company was not only eyeing the healthcare market in Italy but also targeting public service automation. He highlighted that his firm was currently in talks with the Italian Post Office regarding a massive roll-out of robots across the country. “The Italian Post Office wants its over 12,000 branches to boost efficiency,” he said. “Integrated with large language models, the robots act as automated kiosks, instantly answering inquiries, processing postal services, taking payments and printing stamps, streamlining public service operations.” Apart from meeting representatives of the office, Lim hoped to collaborate with Italian restaurants on developing specialised robotic arms. The event in Milan also aims to encourage Italian enterprises to establish a presence in Hong Kong. Wong acknowledged that European firms often arrived with limited knowledge of the Asian business landscape in terms of establishing vital connections and market strategies. “We try our best to map out partners for them, including collaborative partners, business partners and sales channels,” he said, stressing that understanding the regional ecosystem was paramount. “Mastering the local and mainland or Asian market structure, stakeholder management and networking – these are very important for them.” https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3333850/hong-kongs-paul-chan-lead-delegation-italy-showcase-tech-boost-trade (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post