Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs attends kick-off ceremony of entrepreneurship event for Hong Kong and Macao youths in Hengqin, Zhuhai

The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, arrived in Hengqin, Zhuhai, this morning (September 23) to attend the kick-off ceremony of an entrepreneurship event for Hong Kong and Macao youths.

With the theme of “New Quality Productive Forces Strive for High-quality Development”, the event aims to help Hong Kong and Macao youths who are developing their careers in Guangdong to engage in exchanges and gain further understanding of the industry development of Guangdong Province through visits, research and discussions. This will enable them to deepen their knowledge of new productivity, thereby facilitating their active integration into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Speaking at the ceremony, Miss Mak said that young people are an important driving force for the country’s high-quality development. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government aims to provide more comprehensive support for Hong Kong youths through new rounds of the Funding Scheme for Youth Entrepreneurship in the GBA and the Funding Scheme for Experiential Programmes at Innovation and Entrepreneurial Bases, helping them pursue innovation and entrepreneurship in the GBA.

Miss Mak said that the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB) jointly established the Alliance of Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurial Bases in the Greater Bay Area with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province and the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong Province last year, gathering around 60 member organisations. Around 100 activities have been planned or held in Hong Kong and Guangdong by member organisations of the Alliance, which demonstrated the Alliance’s full support in helping Hong Kong youths to start their businesses in the GBA and enhancing their confidence in developing their careers in the GBA.

The event is organised by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the executive committee of Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperate Zone in Hengqin, the HYAB of the HKSAR Government and the Education and Youth Development Bureau of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region.

Miss Mak finished the visit and returned to Hong Kong on the same day.

InvestHK promotes Hong Kong’s new business opportunities during Beijing Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium

​Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) and Beijing government authorities cohosted a series of thematic seminars during the Beijing Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium and the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Conference (the Symposium) in Beijing on September 21 to provide an update on Hong Kong’s new business opportunities, especially in supply chain internationalisation and co-operation in innovation and technology. The objective is to encourage Beijing enterprises to make use of Hong Kong’s business advantages and opportunities to accelerate their overseas expansion.

This year’s Symposium aimed to promote complementarity to achieve shared prosperity. It featured 15 thematic promotion events and other activities, focusing on Hong Kong’s unique advantages, business environment, and measures to facilitate co-operation between enterprises in Beijing and Hong Kong.

On the morning of September 21, InvestHK jointly organised the first special promotion activities on regional strategic connection with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, entitled Leverage Complementarity Advantages and Jointly Promote the International Development of Industrial and Supply Chains in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Region. The Director-General of Investment Promotion, Ms Alpha Lau, said, “More and more Mainland manufacturers are leveraging both domestic and overseas production capabilities to form multinational supply chains, which has greatly increased the demand for professional services. Hong Kong as an international financial, trading, shipping and aviation centre, provides them with comprehensive and high-quality professional services to meet their business needs in Asia and overseas. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government is actively developing the city into a multinational supply chain management centre to seize the opportunities from the overseas expansion of industrial supply chains on the Mainland. Together with Hong Kong’s various business advantages, the city can help Mainland enterprises to ‘go global’ with high quality.”

By way of the historical opportunities brought by the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, the HKSAR Government has been moving at full steam to develop emerging industries such as innovation and technology in recent years, and is actively developing Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology centre. On the same day, InvestHK promoted Hong Kong’s new opportunities in technological innovation to entrepreneurs in Beijing at the two thematic events.

The first technological innovation thematic event was jointly organised with the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Administrative Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council,and was entitled Forum on Creating the Future Technology Innovation Cooperation in Beijing and Hong Kong through ‘Intelligence’ and the 7th ‘Beijing – Hong Kong Youth Innovation Cup’ Final”. Ms Lau said, “The HKSAR Government is accelerating the development of building the city into an innovation and technology hub. Together with Hong Kong’s unique business advantages, the city is an ideal platform for Mainland enterprises to enhance their new quality productive forces and international competitiveness, as well as being an ideal base for start-ups to set up. According to InvestHK’s survey, Hong Kong has more than 4 200 start-ups with both the number of start-ups and their number of staff employed reaching a new record high and demonstrating a vibrant start-up ecosystem.” Ms Lau encouraged more innovative enterprises in Beijing to consider using Hong Kong as the platform to expand overseas. She was also invited to join the unveiling and project-signing ceremony of the Beijing-Hong Kong science and technology innovation co-operation during the event.

The second technological innovation thematic event was entitled Empowering AI, Investing in Haidian Smartly and was a Haidian District special promotion event. It was co-organised by InvestHK and the People’s Government of Haidian District of Beijing Municipality. Ms Lau said, “Hong Kong has world-class universities and cutting-edge research institutions, bringing together overseas and domestic higher-education resources and scientific research talent. The HKSAR Government is actively developing innovation and technology from various aspects and is promoting the development of an artificial intelligence technology ecosystem. With the establishment of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, it aims to attract and assist high-potential and representative strategic enterprises from around the world to set up in the city. Together with a series of new policy initiatives to attract talent, we believe that it can bring more momentum to Hong Kong’s future development and further enhance the city’s competitiveness in artificial intelligence.”

The Senior Vice President from the Startups team of InvestHK, Mr Lu Chin Yung, also introduced Hong Kong’s business environment and the latest start-up ecosystem in the two technological innovation thematic events.

For photos of the conference, please visit www.flickr.com/photos/investhk/albums/72177720320537188.