Financial Secretary Paul Chan read out the Budget for next year on Wednesday (23rd), with an estimated expenditure of 807.3 billion yuan and revenue of 715.9 billion yuan.
In addition to the relief measures in the face of the epidemic, planning for Hong Kong's long-term competitiveness and economic growth is also an important task.
Therefore, the Budget also has a special section in the industrial development on encouraging the innovation and technology industry in Hong Kong, in order to find a new way out for Hong Kong.
Whether it is from this or previous budgets, the Government has been actively investing research funds in I&T development in the past.
In terms of results, however, Hong Kong's technology industry has yet to see significant improvement.
For example, the "Innovative Technology Industry" among the six advantageous industries accounted for 0.7% of Hong Kong's GDP in 2008, and still only accounted for 0.9% in 2019.
This also shows that the current practice of relying solely on funding to support scientific research cannot effectively promote the innovation and technology industry, and the government must seek a breakthrough in the "old way".
Financial Secretary Chan Mo-po released the latest Budget on Wednesday (February 23).
Only in the real estate industry can benefit many people
Hong Kong's investment in I&T tends to focus on scientific research, such as setting up various funds for university researchers to apply.
There are also many achievements in innovation and technology.
The "Hong Kong Unicorn List Unicorns HK 2021" first announced by the Innovation and Technology Hong Kong Foundation last year listed 18 unicorn companies with "Hong Kong genes", mainly engaged in high-end manufacturing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Wait.
Although these companies have "Hong Kong DNA", Hong Kong is not mainly an industrialized part of the industrial chain of these companies, but is engaged in research, fundraising, and external services.
If Hong Kong is only responsible for upstream research and fundraising in the entire "industry chain" of I&T, the beneficiaries will only benefit a small number of elite researchers and financial practitioners, and will not be of much help to the middle and lower levels of the CCC.
However, if the research results can be industrialized locally in Hong Kong to change the real industrial economy, there will be a large demand for labor, and then demand for management and services. The value it can create is far better than just doing the upstream part.
And once the industrial chain is formed, it will also strengthen the external economy's dependence on Hong Kong and strengthen the local economic foundation.
Ineffective in real estate industrialization
Although the scientific research funds launched by the government have always encouraged the on-site industrialization of scientific research, the government itself also has an economic plan for "re-industrialization".
For example, in 2014, the government set up the "University Technology Start-up Funding Scheme" under the "Innovation and Technology Fund" to support the commercialization of research and the implementation of the results.
This year's Budget doubles the funding for each university to $16 million, and each university start-up can receive up to $1.5 million in funding.
Well-known unicorns such as Shang Tang have Hong Kong genes, but their industrialization is not in Hong Kong.
However, the specific results of "local industrialization" are not ideal.
The model of taking Hong Kong as the "front shop" and the mainland as the "back factory" is still the mainstream. In the so-called "localization", Hong Kong is only assigned to the relatively upstream part of the entire industrial chain.
Taking the above-mentioned "Hong Kong Unicorn List Unicorns HK 2021" as an example, the basic research of SenseTime and DJI was completed in Hong Kong, but the research results were brought back to the mainland for industrialization. wedding dress".
Another example is the biotechnology company in Gene Harbor. Although the company's headquarters and R&D center are located in the Hong Kong Science Park, it can be said that it is a Hong Kong company, but its production base is located in Shanghai, and several large factories are being built in Suzhou and Ningbo. The pattern of the factory after the shop.
If the government wants to develop I&T and re-industrialization locally, it has to find new ways to encourage and support more technology companies to truly "industrialize in the local area", so as to achieve what Chan Mo-po said in his Budget speech. , "creating more high-quality and diverse employment opportunities", "creating conditions and providing resources to solve deep-seated problems such as housing and poverty".
Budget | Deficits turned into surplus spending can't be stingy with the Budget.
Consumer Coupon｜April's Budget that is dazzling, think for the sake of the public housing public housing
