China's Silicon Valley Threatens to Swallow Up Hong Kong(bloomberg.com)

China's Silicon Valley Threatens to Swallow Up Hong Kong

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-28/bridge-to-china-s-silicon-valley-may-swallow-up-hong-kong

1 comments

This is a good article, but I wish it went a bit further into the complexities facing Hong Kong as it seeks its place in a 21st century where access to Chinese investments is no longer throttled by access to Hong Kong. I first lived in Hong Kong as a student in 2006 and I remember thinking that the tech push starting in Shenzhen would be dwarfed by tech growth in HK given its already prominent status in the international community and density of top notch universities.

When I visited in January, though, it felt like the opposite has happened; Tencent has grown into an international behemoth and HK has failed to really choose to invest in tech growth. I have friends at SUSTC, so I'm glad that Shenzhen is making big things happen, but it is disappointing to see HK still focused on running/growing the economy according to a 1980s playbook. Even the cyberport really ended up feeling more like just a ploy to be able to build more housing rather than an actual tech community.

Still time to make big things happen in HK, but, in my opinion, it's going to take leaders in the business community to push for it and make investments. It will also take strong collaboration with the outstanding academic community in HK to make that happen.

I'd love to hear from people currently in HK about how then view the tech sector and what their plans are.