Hong Kong to answer Xi Jinping’s call for Greater Bay Area tech ties: Paul Chan Hong Kong will heed President Xi Jinping’s call to forge closer ties with the Greater Bay Area to pursue technological innovations, the finance chief has said, noting the number of start-ups in the city increased by 40 per cent between 2020 and 2024. Financial Secretary Paul Mo-po also vowed on Sunday to help bay area cities tap into international markets by leveraging Hong Kong’s dual roles for “going global and attracting foreign investment”. He cited Xi’s remarks during a recent inspection tour in Guangdong that there was a need to “strengthen technological innovation cooperation and infrastructure connectivity, and promote soft connectivity in rules and mechanisms”. “Hong Kong must leverage its role as an international two-way platform to contribute more deeply to the development and construction of the Greater Bay Area, supporting greater market integration and unlocking its advantages,” Chan wrote in his weekly blog. The finance chief said he believed such integration would also help Hong Kong’s future development to be “more diverse, promising and exciting”. He highlighted that Hong Kong’s financial and innovation ecosystems had flourished in recent years, accelerating economic development. “The flourishing financial and innovation ecosystems are mutually reinforcing … They also play a vital role in Hong Kong’s deep involvement in the development of the [bay area],” he said. Chan noted that the number of start-ups in Hong Kong had increased by about 40 per cent to around 4,700 between 2020 and 2024. The figure came from an InvestHK survey from December last year, which also showed the number of employees working in start-ups had jumped 65 per cent to more than 17,600 over the same period. The proportion of start-ups founded by non-locals stood at about 28 per cent, with around 40 per cent of those founders being mainland Chinese, according to the poll. Chan also discussed the city’s Elevator Pitch International Competition 2025, or EPIC, with the flagship event attracting a record number of more than 1,200 applications from 70 economies. Among them, 87 per cent were non-local teams. A breakdown of the top 100 finalists showed that about 20 to 30 per cent of the teams each came from Hong Kong, Europe, the Americas, mainland China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region – the highest level of international participation to date. “This reflects the global start-up community’s eagerness to leverage Hong Kong’s international platform for greater development opportunities,” Chan said. He stressed the city’s strengths as an international financial hub. “Hong Kong offers a thriving fundraising environment that supports start-ups from angel investment through multiple funding rounds to [initial public offerings], providing solid financial backing for their development at every stage,” Chan said. The finance chief also noted that start-ups based in Cyberport and the Hong Kong Science Park raised about HK$6 billion (US$771 million) in funding over the past year. “Additionally, several companies based in these hubs successfully went public, raising a combined HK$5.2 billion,” he added. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3332101/hong-kong-answer-xi-jinpings-call-greater-bay-area-tech-ties-paul-chan (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post