Hong Kong's official slogans such as developing innovation and technology and giving full play to the advantages of basic research have been shouted for many years, but it seems that a suitable path has not yet been found, and the opportunity has been missed many times.
The national "14th Five-Year Plan" indicates that the deployment of new-generation artificial intelligence, quantum information, integrated circuits, neurochips and DNA storage and other cutting-edge technologies (cutting-edge technologies), and Hong Kong, which intends to become an "international innovation and technology center", has the ability to become an "international innovation and technology center". "National Science and Technology Pioneer" conditions?
With Sun Dong, a top scientist, as the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, can Hong Kong take advantage of this situation to create a "New Silicon Valley of the World"?
(Editor's note: On the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, which has always advocated "one country, two systems", "Hong Kong 01" hereby publishes the special issue "A New Journey with the Times", which includes seven in-depth reports from the past, recording the key thinking of Hong Kong entering a period of social transformation . This is the third, integrated from the 270th issue of "Hong Kong 01" weekly.)
The number of researchers per million population in Hong Kong is about 4,026.5, which is the weakest among the advanced economies group, and the difference is nearly double that of South Korea.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
1. There is no room for scientists, so how can you sharpen a sword in ten years?
According to the World Innovation Index 2020, the number of researchers per million population in Hong Kong is around 4,026.5, making it a weak performer among the advanced economies group, nearly double that of South Korea (Table 1).
According to the research report "Unlocking Hong Kong's Technological Innovation Potential to Build an International R&D Capital" (hereinafter referred to as the "R&D Capital"), a research report by the think tank "Unite Hong Kong Fund", the number of researchers in the education sector in Hong Kong in 2018 was less than one-third of that in London. , although the number of professors is similar, the number of graduate students and researchers is far apart (Table 2).
Why are there not many university graduates in Hong Kong willing to continue their studies?
The observation of Chen Qingquan, the "Father of Electric Vehicles in Asia", is that Hong Kong students are very smart, but most of them think that it is difficult to get a doctorate, so they do not pursue further studies after graduation.
As the first academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering after the return of Hong Kong, Chen Qingquan can be said to have witnessed the development of Hong Kong's scientific research community, large and small, and also experienced the take-off of national science. Academician Alliance", which gathers academicians in Hong Kong to offer advice and suggestions for the establishment of the Development Division of the SAR Government.
"It takes too long for scientific researchers to apply for projects, and there are too few people who calm down and "grind a sword in ten years." Chen Qingquan said, "The thinking mode of quick success should be abandoned...and the spirit of sitting on the 'cold bench' should be promoted." He once said Wrote "Provide an Original Atmosphere from 0 to 1 for Scientific Researcher Innovation", mentioning that returns take time: "Because of the free exploratory nature of research, the emergence of theoretical value of basic research results requires a long time process. The evaluation cycle can be appropriately extended, the scope of peer review at home and abroad can be expanded, and the theoretical value and academic value can be emphasized, especially its supporting and leading role in applied research.”
Unfortunately, in Hong Kong, which is eager for success, neither professors nor postgraduates seem to be reluctant to "sit on the bench."
According to UGC data, in the 2019/20 academic year, there were 6,864 non-local students, accounting for 82% of the total number of students, in research programmes of research institutes in public institutions, also known as "academic postgraduate students". There are fewer than 1,400 local academic postgraduate students.
In 2018, Hong Kong had less than one-third as many researchers in the education sector as London.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
It is human nature to "hurry for quick success". The question is whether the SAR government has provided enough incentives for research talents and enough jobs for the development of industries in response to the relevant issues?
The answer is undoubtedly disappointing.
In this regard, Ni Mingxuan, vice president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and founding president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), could not hide his regret: "I have trained many outstanding graduates, but not many remain in Hong Kong." He pointed out that land restrictions, External factors such as backward infrastructure and high housing prices have hindered Hong Kong universities from cultivating and retaining talents. If students want to teach, they will flow to foreign countries due to the shortage of teaching chairs; if they want to innovate and start a business, they can only go north to break through.
So, what is the crux of the matter?
The first is that the Hong Kong government's investment in research and development and education in colleges and universities is too low.
Taking chips necessary for cutting-edge technology as an example, "Thirty years ago, HKUST was the only place in China that could make chips," Ni Mingxuan said, but in the past three decades, the government has not subsidized colleges and universities to upgrade related equipment, and the equipment has become outdated. The opportunity has been missed."
According to Cai Hongbin, Dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Hong Kong, in the article "Proposal for Hong Kong's "Human Capital Investment Multiplication Plan", Hong Kong's public education expenditure accounts for only 3.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is lower than that of economic cooperation and The average level of the OECD is 5.1%; the combined R&D expenditure of the industrial sector, government and universities accounts for only 0.8% of GDP, and the average of OECD member countries is 2.4%, which is three times that of Hong Kong.
Given the shortage of resources, universities pursue rankings in order to obtain more resources, resulting in serious homogeneous competition and lack of cooperation.
Although the resources are limited, the potential is unlimited.
In March 2021, the National "Two Sessions" issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of Vision 2035", which clearly focused on "frontier technology" (cutting-edge technology), including a new generation of artificial intelligence , quantum information, integrated circuits, brain science and brain-like research, gene and biotechnology, clinical medicine and health, deep space, deep sea and polar exploration.
With five top 100 universities in the world, obvious advantages in basic research, an international system and environment, and a large number of world-renowned scholars, Hong Kong seems to be the most capable city in the country to engage in these seven cutting-edge scientific and technological research.
Ni Mingxuan is disappointed by the lack of scientific research talents in Hong Kong.
(Photo by Su Weiran)
Wong Kam-fai, associate dean (foreign affairs) of the School of Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, pointed out that Hong Kong has "great potential" in the six major technology fields listed in the "14th Five-Year Plan".
He divides the technologies listed in the national plan into two categories: one is "stuck neck" technology, that is, technology fields that foreign countries are doing well but China is relatively backward, such as integrated circuits (ie chips, sensors, etc.); the other is "unknown" technology ” technology, that is, fields of science and technology that all countries are exploring, such as quantum computing.
Hong Kong can gather its existing advantages to meet the country's needs and focus on tackling "stuck neck" problems, and actively participate in "unknown" scientific research.
Wong Kam Fai took the most popular "neck neck" technology - chip as an example: chip technology is divided into two aspects: design and production. Hong Kong's "chip design" level is world-class, and electrical and electronic engineering is one of the best in the world. .
According to the 2021 QS World University Rankings by Subject, the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ranks 20th in the world, while the Department of Electronics of five universities in Hong Kong ranks among the top 100 in the world (Table 3).
It can be said that the academic accumulation advantage of Hong Kong in the Department of Electronics is unparalleled in Asia (Table 4).
"If the Hong Kong science and technology industry wants to contribute to the 'neck stuck' technology, the first thing is to provide a relaxed environment for researchers." Chen Qingquan pointedly said that scientists should not be restricted by the evaluation system. The current evaluation system "emphasizes that The number of papers" is not conducive to original research "from 0 to 1", and in the final analysis, it should start from the establishment of "research institutes".
"There are four major elements to engage in the high-tech industry. The first is famous universities, where science is produced; the second is research institutes, which produce technology; the third is enterprises and the market; the fourth is finance." Chen Qingquan pointed out that Hong Kong's innovation and technology currently The pain point: "Hong Kong has famous universities, but no research institutes, so universities produce science and theory, but not technology."
Wong Kam-fai also believes that Hong Kong needs to build a "Bay Area super scientific research institution": "The establishment of large-scale scientific research institutions has become a global trend, providing a stable platform for long-term and large-scale frontier scientific research cooperation, as well as sufficient financial support, which is not only beneficial In order to attract top international scientific and technological talents, it can also provide career development paths for postdoctoral researchers.”
According to the 2021 QS World University Rankings by Subject, the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ranks 20th in the world, and the Department of Electronics of five universities in Hong Kong ranks among the top 100 in the world.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
"Students want to teach after a doctorate. The number of university professors is limited. Afterwards, when they go to a postdoctoral degree or become a research assistant, they all get project money, which is "soft money", not a career! The project is gone, and the money is gone. "Chen Qingquan also pointed out that Hong Kong students like to be doctors, lawyers, and finance. In contrast, "Science and engineering are so hard, you can't make quick money, you can't marry a wife, you can't buy a house... This is all because of the lack of researchers in Hong Kong. This kind of clear career path.” He hopes that the Chinese Academy of Sciences can set up a branch in Hong Kong, so that young people who are interested in scientific research have a place to go.
Such research institutes and research institutes are more able to break the status quo of homogeneous competition among universities and establish a platform for cooperation between disciplines and schools, which is crucial to promoting cutting-edge scientific research.
Chen Qingquan said, "Only by engaging in interdisciplinary research can we hope to build a leadership position in the discipline." Because ordinary technology has been invented, it is necessary to explore interdisciplinary fields. "You must dare to enter the no-man's land. ”
The interdisciplinary education system requires schools to break away from traditional colleges and departments, which is too "scarring" for the long-established universities in Hong Kong, but if there are new "research institutes", they can break the barriers , have the courage to try.
Huang Jinhui suggested that the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong can take the lead in establishing large-scale scientific research institutions in the Hetao District, pooling talents and resources, and "gathering strength to overcome technical difficulties and master core cutting-edge technologies."
There are also research institutes in Hong Kong, but they are small in scale and employ no more than 400 researchers in total (Table 5). Moreover, the laboratories behind each R&D center rely on universities, which mainly focus on fields and themes, making it difficult to conduct cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary research. .
The government should consider integrating resources and systematically design a platform for cooperating to tackle cutting-edge technologies.
The "R&D Capital" pointed out that in recent years, economies such as the United Kingdom and the United States, which have been leading in the field of science, have begun to establish large cross-institutional research institutions.
In the United States, the Broad Institute was established to promote in-depth interdisciplinary, interorganizational, and interregional collaborative research to address today's complex biomedical challenges.
The long-term and sustainable development of large research institutions is inseparable from the large and regular government investment. Taking the Broad Institute as an example, the US federal government will subsidize about 150 million US dollars each year to support its research work.
Hong Kong's academic accumulation advantage in the Department of Electronics is unparalleled in Asia.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
2. "Silicon Harbor" was stillborn and fell into a vicious circle
Another obstacle to building a high-tech industry in Hong Kong is the lack of high-tech enterprises.
"Hong Kong has three centers, shipping, trade and financial centers, but only these three centers are not sound." Chen Qingquan said, "We should also include high-tech companies, such as sensors, medical technology and other high value-added and unreliable centers. Enterprises that take up land.”
Hong Kong once gathered a large number of international high-tech companies and even factories. For example, Philips, Motorola and other leaders in the electronics industry in the past have established Asia-Pacific R&D centers and factories in Hong Kong.
Overlapping "decolonization" and "return", Hong Kong's economic sector has undergone a large-scale "de-industrialization", a large number of factories have been relocated, and the R&D and testing departments of technology companies have also moved northward with the factories.
"I used to face hundreds of thousands of 8051 chips every day. Are you familiar with me?" said Liu Zhentao, CEO of Hengguang Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd.
In the 1980s, he enrolled in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Hong Kong, and later worked in Motorola's Hong Kong factory.
In his sixtieth year, he has started a new business in recent years, and has developed chip-controlled six-phase brushless DC motor technology.
How can a small chip cause an international "tech war"?
Liu Zhentao explained the reason, the chip is also called "integrated circuit", which is to integrate complex electronic circuits on a chip with a small area and low cost. "You can use many large parts to achieve it, or you can use a very Do it with space-saving, cheap chips."
Choosing the latter is a natural move of technological development.
Liu Zhentao pointed out that the material cost of the chip is not expensive, "the raw material is just sand", but the research and development cost is relatively high, and the equipment and personnel requirements involved in the process are relatively high.
It can be seen from this that the chip industry is actually a capital-intensive and technology-intensive industry, a high-value-added industry, which is also in line with Hong Kong's transformation towards a high-value-added knowledge-based economy.
In fact, Hong Kong once had the largest chip industry chain in Asia.
According to the report "Oversight Visit to the Pacific Far East" by the US congressional delegation in 1992, Motorola Semiconductor Hong Kong Co., Ltd. was established in 1967 and is the center of Motorola's semiconductor department in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 1982, Motorola established a production testing center and an engineering laboratory in Kwai Fong; in 1986, an advanced integrated circuit design center was built; in 1988, the fully automatic integrated circuit assembly center began to operate, and the "Silicon Harbour Center" was opened in the same year. ) project planning; in 1990, the "Silicon Port Center" in Tai Po was built, which was the second largest semiconductor test and assembly factory in Asia at the beginning of the 21st century, capable of testing 5.2 million wafers per week.
Liu Zhentao pointed out that what engineering needs is not genius, but experience.
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
The production lines set up by foreign companies such as Motorola in Hong Kong have trained a large number of experienced engineers, which has also created a flourishing electronics industry in Hong Kong.
However, due to the sharp increase in land and labor costs, the Motorola factory was closed in 2002, and the production line was moved to Tianjin and Kuala Lumpur. Later, the "Silicon Port Center" was also converted into the office building of Phoenix Satellite TV.
Liu Zhentao believes that behind the industrial exodus are "political factors" and the government's "lazy rationale": "The British knew that they would return it in 1997, and they would not make long-term investments. In addition, the Hong Kong government focused on one side, and the industry would not develop any more. "
It is not that the SAR government after the reunification did not pay little attention to technology and industry.
After the first Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa took office, he immediately appointed Tian Changlin, the former president of the University of California, Berkeley, as the chairman of the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Committee, which promoted the completion of projects such as Cyberport and Science Park.
In terms of chips, Tung Chee-hwa also named the photomask (a key component in chip design) project under the Shougang Group to government officials to consolidate the local chip design industry.
Since the Chief Executive has expressed the importance of technology, what is the problem?
Chen Qingquan told the truth.
At the beginning of the return, he served as the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers, led a team to investigate the industrial development of Singapore, Finland and other countries, and even threw an olive branch to Nokia in Finland and invited it to build a factory in Discovery Bay.
Tian Changlin also plans to promote the technology stock market. "Similar to the current 'Science and Technology Innovation Board', he specially invited Xu Dalin to give us a report on how he succeeded in investing in Silicon Valley." Xu Dalin is a technology venture capital firm Hambrecht & Quist. The founder of the company is famous for investing in the Asia-Pacific chip industry.
In 1999, Xu Dalin proposed the "Silicon Harbor" plan to establish six chip factories in Hong Kong, hoping to cooperate with Taiwanese semiconductor engineer Zhang Rujing to transfer the development experience of Taiwan Science Park to Hong Kong.
A series of high-end technology and high-end industrial projects that Tian Changlin, Chen Qingquan and other scientific and technological experts have worked so hard to promote were ultimately unsuccessful due to political resistance. During the project promotion process, two directors of the "three divisions" took the lead in opposing it.
"Those high-ranking officials have no knowledge of technology at all!" Chen Qingquan recalled the incident and still couldn't help but slapped the desk, "That Taiwanese chip company also wanted to come to Hong Kong, but in the end it went to Shanghai because Hong Kong didn't give land. It asked for land. Isn't it normal? But those high-ranking officials are against it!"
In 2000, Xu Dalin said that Handing Asia Pacific gave up the "Silicon Port" plan in Hong Kong and moved the plan to Shanghai for implementation.
He said that this is mainly because Shanghai is willing to provide land on almost rent-free conditions, with tax exemption for the first five years and half of the tax for the next five years, but the Hong Kong government is unwilling to give it back.
As a result, "Silicon Port" was renamed "SMIC" after landing in Shanghai, and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York and London Stock Exchange four years later.
Today, SMIC has grown into the only chip manufacturer in China with a capacity of 14nm, and one of the top ten chip manufacturers in the world.
The environment in Hong Kong is not conducive to the long-term development of scientific research personnel, and it is difficult to retain outstanding scientific research personnel.
(File photo/Photo by Zhang Haowei)
3. Rethink "re-industrialization" and promote re-technology
Looking back, Hong Kong has lost far more than "industry", and the accompanying "de-technization" has far-reaching effects.
Technology companies and factories have trained a large number of experienced engineers, who lost their jobs, changed careers, and left Hong Kong; the innovation and technology seeds cultivated in colleges and universities chose to land in the north due to lack of industry, and it is difficult to create "unicorns" locally; middle-level blue-collar jobs are greatly reduced , not only hinders upward mobility and exacerbates the gap between the rich and the poor; the willingness of young people to enter the technology industry has also been greatly reduced, and there is no way out for science and engineering talents...
"In the 1990s, when I was in my forties, the company opened a seven-digit number to manually dig me." Liu Zhentao proudly said that this is "you get what you pay for." Do $390 million.
At that time, the technology in the industry had just switched from analog to digital. Liu Zhentao chose to study digital in the Department of Electronics of the University of Hong Kong. He started from the basic knowledge of integrated circuits and had solid experience.
"You're going to test my 30-odd part numbers for logic gates, and I can answer you all!"
However, after Motorola left Hong Kong, engineers turned to management, business, and politics. Like Liu Zhentao, there are very few people who are willing to stay in the electronic engineering industry in Hong Kong but "have not starved to death".
He mentioned that Singapore began to promote the development of the chip industry in the 1980s, and came to Hong Kong to "pry" engineers. "As soon as my colleague went there, (lived) in a 2,100-square-foot (house)!" He lamented that the salary level in Singapore was obviously low at that time. Less than one-third of Hong Kong's, but now the tide has turned.
Hong Kong has lost far more than experienced engineers. Fewer young people are willing to enter the industry. Science and engineering courses are more difficult, but employment prospects are far less than those of professionals in finance, medicine, and teachers.
The relationship between nurturing the technology industry and cultivating technology talents has already fallen into a "vicious circle" of "chicken or egg". Although the government has shouted slogans to promote the development of innovation and technology, it is difficult to change the status quo.
Industry and high-tech enterprises are interdependent. Losing industry means losing the industrial environment, enterprises and talents for the development of I&T.
In 2016, the SAR government included "re-industrialization" in the "Policy Address" for the first time, but five years later, according to the 2019 data from the Census and Statistics Department, the manufacturing GDP accounted for only 1.1%.
Hong Kong's industrial development is still stagnant, let alone bringing changes to the I&T environment.
The key pain point is that Hong Kong is only waving the flag and shouting for "re-industrialization" in response to the world trend of "re-industrialization", but in fact it neither re-examines the industrial soil of Hong Kong nor understands the interdependent relationship between "industry" and "technology". , the result is just to upgrade the low-end manufacturing industry, rather than the "re-industrialization" of "re-technicalization".
Wong Kam-fai believes that Hong Kong needs to build a "Bay Area super scientific research institution".
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
The term "re-industrialization" was mentioned for the first time in the 2016 "Policy Address": on the one hand, it is the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, using intelligent production, digitalization and other methods to improve the production efficiency of traditional industries; on the other hand, it focuses on the advantages of scientific research , advanced manufacturing industries created by high value-added products, such as medical technology, advanced materials, precision instruments, etc., which have advantages in Hong Kong.
While both are included in "reindustrialization", the goals are completely different.
The former focuses on improving productivity, while the latter focuses on creating new industries and connecting upstream scientific research advantages, which is more difficult than the former.
Having said that, the importance and long-term benefits of developing advanced manufacturing are higher than upgrading traditional industries, and it is more in line with Hong Kong's goal of building an "international innovation and technology center", because it can not only host senior research talents and engineers, but also Gather the strength of enterprises to jointly tackle cutting-edge scientific research.
However, five years later, most of Hong Kong's current "re-industrialization" projects focus on upgrading traditional industries. In terms of promoting advanced manufacturing, resources are not fully invested and infrastructure construction is slow. Therefore, many entrepreneurs who came out of university laboratories The team chose to go north, and it is still difficult for "technology" to contribute to Hong Kong's GDP as an industry.
In terms of resource allocation, the Innovation and Technology Bureau launched the "Re-industrialization Subsidy Scheme" in July 2020 to provide Hong Kong enterprises with one-third (capped at $15 million) subsidy for smart production lines.
Lai Shaobin, Chief Digital Director of the Productivity Development Bureau, calculated that if the full amount is calculated, the planned 2 billion yuan can subsidize about 130 enterprises to set up production lines, and based on the output value of each production line of 100 million yuan, "Hong Kong's manufacturing GDP can It will increase by about 50%.” However, cutting-edge technology products mainly come from R&D patents in universities and research institutes.
The capital of the entrepreneurial team in colleges and universities has always been short. If you want to establish production lines in Hong Kong, it is difficult to bear the remaining two-thirds of the construction costs.
In other words, the "funding scheme" will benefit companies with good capital flow or certain financial resources, ignoring start-ups with cutting-edge technology but short financial resources.
In addition to the lack of industrial support for the technology industry, there is also a lack of large and medium-sized technology leading companies in the "re-technological" territory.
"How do we integrate into the ecology of the Greater Bay Area, and where does Hong Kong occupy?" Ni Mingxuan wondered: "Hong Kong has many schools and good basic scientific research, but basic scientific research requires investment, money to buy equipment, and hiring people. When it comes to output, it makes money. That part went to other places, are we at a loss?” He hopes that Hong Kong will provide preferential conditions for high-tech companies to attract them to set up their headquarters in Hong Kong.
Chen Qingquan also recalled that when he was researching technology in Singapore, he found that the local area did not hesitate to use land to attract leading oil refining companies to set up factories.
"Officials told the company that you need land, but you need to cultivate talents for Singapore." Chen Qingquan explained that as a condition for exchanging land, Singapore requires oil refining companies to set up research institutes locally and send experts to train local youth. "Five years After the knowledge has been updated, the company has to send new experts.”
The importance of leading companies to the development of I&T in Hong Kong is self-evident. However, today's Hong Kong has an unspeakably positive attitude towards technology companies.
In the 2020 Policy Address, in order to strengthen the function of financial centers, the SAR government has provided a number of preferential policies for financial companies, such as relaxing the restrictions on real estate trust funds, providing tax relief for private funds, and setting up a marketing team to promote Hong Kong has set up family offices, etc., but when it comes to innovation and technology, there are only two talent programs, the "Outstanding Innovation and Science Talents Program" and the "Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Program", and there is no mention of any investment promotion for technology companies.
The government has emphasized that it will promote innovation and technological development, and invest huge amounts of money in university research, re-industrialization, application of technology in public services, and strengthening the atmosphere of innovation and technology.
(file picture)
4. Do a good job of top-level design, and technology can take off
Hong Kong is a highly economical society, and cutting-edge scientific research is the most difficult thing to discuss about economic benefits.
Hong Kong people generally believe in the joke of "High Tech, Low Tech". Seeing that Singapore has achieved an economic miracle and Shenzhen's GDP has surpassed Hong Kong's, they still do not believe that technology can create a splash in Hong Kong.
Liu Zhentao described Hong Kong people not without money, but without the atmosphere of innovation and technology investment, and their knowledge of venture capital in technology is even more backward, "You talk to the fund, they don't believe you will succeed, they think you are lying to him. But doing business There must be risks, otherwise what is venture capital? It’s better to buy a floor!”
Not only the business sector, but also the government and public organizations have conservative attitudes and governance models towards technology start-ups, which are significantly different from those in the mainland.
Start-ups with semiconductor patents are a "strife" for mainland investment institutions, and they are also high-quality resources in the eyes of local governments.
Liu Zhentao, for example, led his team to the mainland to participate in a technology competition. Before the competition, officials from the governments of Wuxi and Ningbo came to meet with each team.
"The Wuxi government made a statement, no matter whether the game wins or loses tomorrow, the 33 teams present, as long as they are willing to settle in Wuxi, the government will immediately give 10 million yuan (RMB)! Then the Ningbo government came over and said the same thing!" He said, targeting semiconductors Enterprises, several local governments have strong financial subsidies, as well as housing subsidies and children's education subsidies. What's happening in reality!"
Chen Qingquan said that Hong Kong leaders should not only show the importance attached to science and technology, but also come up with "top-level design".
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
"The technological development of the mainland is talking about 'sharpening a sword in ten years'. Hong Kong dares not do it, or even think about it." Huang Jinhui sighed, "In the past 30 years, we have been relatively short-sighted." He regarded this short-sighted Blame it on the thinking formed during the British Hong Kong era, "Because it is about to return, everyone wants to get money and leave as soon as possible, and they don't think about long-term investments, so they engage in the service industry and do 'speculation'... This kind of atmosphere should be rejected. correct."
When Chen Qingquan went to Singapore for research, it was the early stage of Hong Kong's return, and everything was an exploratory stage.
He recalled that when he visited an official in Singapore responsible for planning the development of science and technology, he emphasized to him that "Hong Kong is no longer a colony, but an independent economy" and that "Hong Kong must have its own technology and talents."
This is a well-known truth, but unfortunately, the past politicians did not understand the essence of it - to make the development of science and technology one of the strategic goals of the long-term development of the economy.
Frozen three feet, not a day's cold.
Chen Qingquan clearly pointed out that the leaders of Hong Kong should come up with "top-level design".
He gave an example, from student to academician, he has experienced the "three historical periods" of China's scientific development, and experienced the exchanges between three Chinese leaders and scientists at the scene. The slogan of "March into Science"; then Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping proposed "Four Modernizations" and "Science is the Primary Productive Force" at the National University of Science and Technology in 1978; the current President Xi Jinping put forward the "Four Modernizations" and "Science is the Primary Productive Force" at the National University of Science and Technology in 1978; The goal of a technologically powerful country.
"China has a "medium and long-term development plan for science and technology," and a "five-year plan for national economic development."
Chen Qingquan concluded that if Hong Kong wants to develop cutting-edge technology and become an "international innovation and technology center", it must achieve "three understandings" at the planning level.
First, you need to understand yourself, "you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of Hong Kong in technology before you can do top-level design." Second, you need to understand the needs of the country, "In the colonial era, Hong Kong had no demand for technology. Big companies need technology and can buy it from abroad, so (universities) are writing papers. But now the country has needs, Hong Kong needs to play its advantages and make up for shortcomings according to the needs of the country.” Third, to understand the development direction of the world, "There are four Bay Areas in the world, Silicon Valley is high-tech plus finance, New York is finance plus service industry, Tokyo is finance plus high-end manufacturing, and our Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is much larger than them both in terms of economic aggregate and area. The central government is very determined to turn the Greater Bay Area into the best bay area in the world.”
Take a new journey with the times.
1 | Correct yourself to face the new global order and embark on a new journey with the times.
2｜Break the separation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, identify the meaning and then "compensate" for the northern metropolitan area and embark on a new journey with the times.
3｜Connect with national policies to find vitality and take the initiative to create a new world silicon valley
