Hong Kong aims to raise innovation spending to 3% of GDP by about 2030Hong Kong will strive to raise its expenditure on innovation activities to a level equivalent to 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by around 2030, nearly double the current rate, according to the city’s first five-year plan.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled the ambitious goal, together with measures to boost frontier technologies, including aerospace research, on Wednesday.Among the 22 indicators laid out in the plan, the government aims to raise the ratio of total domestic expenditure on innovation activities to GDP from 1.63 per cent in 2024 to 3 per cent around 2030.The government expects the increase in average annual expenditure on innovation activities to be around 10 per cent.“This is indeed aggressive. The government is putting pressure on itself,” a government source said. “We hope our economy can be more diverse.”The insider said the government hoped to attract leading enterprises in areas such as life technology, AI and robotics to Hong Kong as their activities could help boost GDP.The total domestic expenditure on innovation activities will cover R&D, and spending on enterprises’ application development and other activities such as product design and pilot testing.To elevate the city’s role as a regional innovation hub, Lee said the government would press full steam ahead with three major tech parks – the Science Park, Cyberport and the San Tin Technopole and the Loop Hong Kong Park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop – and five institutes.They are the Hong Kong Productivity Council, the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, the Hong Kong Microelectronics Research and Development Institute, the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Institute, and the Life and Health Technology Research Institute.The authorities will also capitalise on 15 state key laboratories and three existing InnoHK research clusters to speed up innovation development.The move aligns with neighbouring Guangdong’s latest five-year plan, announced in April, which highlights the need to connect with the city’s InnoHK clusters and develop state key labs.The Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau will also set up a task group on frontier technologies to formulate a development strategy for areas covering artificial intelligence, new energy, new materials, aerospace technology and quantum technology.The task group, to be formed next year, will comprise experts from engineering and biotechnology fields, according to a source. It will make recommendations to a committee chaired by innovation and technology minister Sun Dong for policy formulation and industry planning.Aerospace, an emerging pillar technology identified by Beijing, will also get a boost.The Innovation and Technology Commission will inject HK$300 million (US$38 million) into a subsidy programme targeting research related to national space missions.The programme would not cap the number of subsidised projects or set a ceiling for the subsidy amount, the source added.In a move to translate local research outcomes, the bureau will also support the Science Park in establishing the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Application Scenario Promotion Centre, which will help line up innovative solutions with organisations from the public and private sectors that could benefit from those inventions.On the medical innovation front, the International Clinical Trial Academy will be set up to train talent conducting clinical trials that are up to international standards.The Hospital Authority will also match innovative medical technologies with potential uses in public healthcare settings through a new unit called the HA Technology Convergence Hub.The hub could serve as a dedicated office to help link drugs, medical devices or prototypes with the authority to run trials, another source said.The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation said it welcomed the five-year plan, and would fully support the implementation of the measures listed in it and the policy address.https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3367767/hong-kong-aims-raise-innovation-spending-3-gdp-about-2030?pgtype=live (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post