SCED visits Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area

In early June, Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs. Rita Lau paid her first official visit to the states of Washington and California.

In Seattle, Secretary Lau visited the Microsoft headquarters and had a meeting with its General Manager of Worldwide Industry (Government), Mr Matt Miszewski. She also had a lunch meeting with Washington Lieutenant Governor, Mr Brad Owen; the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mr David Tang; the Chairman of the National US Hong Kong Business Association, Mr Benjamin Lee; the President of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, Mr W William Stafford, and local dignitaries in Seattle.

She then traveled to San Jose on June 4 and addressed the "Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Summit" before heading for San Francisco, officiating at the “Hong Kong – Smart City, Smart Life’ reception.

SCED visits leading high-tech enterprises in Silicon Valley

Hong Kong is firmly committed to promoting innovation and technology, with a multi-pronged strategy devised to create a business environment conducive to Hong Kong's development into a regional technology services hub.

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, said this while addressing the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Summit in San Jose, on June 4 during which she invited more than 400 participants at the summit in Silicon Valley to capitalize on Hong Kong's advantages for their China business.

"The vision is that Hong Kong will develop into an innovation-led, technology-intensive economy in the 21st century, serving the region not only as a business centre, but also as a centre for the development and commercialization of innovative ideas and technology," Mrs Lau said at the Summit organized by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco with support from Asian Business League, California-Asia Business Council, Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association, Chinese Information and Networking Association, Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, HongKong-SV.com, San Francisco Global Trade Council and Silicon Valley Science and Technology Association.

Noting that Hong Kong enjoys the unique advantage of being situated at the heart of the Pearl River Delta region of southern China - one of the most economically active and fastest growing regions in the world, she said that the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and Mainland China enabled companies to carry out high value manufacturing and processing in Hong Kong with the assurance of intellectual property rights protection while enjoying tariff-free access to the Mainland market.

"With the Mainland moving towards 'autonomous innovation' and having ambitions in a wide range of technological advancements, Hong Kong has an active role to play in the Mainland's technological development," Mrs Lau said.

She cited the DuPont project - a flagship project under the “Shenzhen Hong Kong Innovation Circle” launched by the governments of the two cities to promote strategic collaboration on sharing and utilising of science and technology resources for regional innovation activities.

"With the success of the DuPont project, we are confident that in the near future more and more such major companies will decide to step up their R&D presence in Hong Kong," Mrs Lau said.

Also speaking at the summit were Dr Steven Freilich, Chief Technology Officer, DuPont Electronics and Communication Technologies Platform; Mr Noel Lee, Head Monster, Monster Cable Products; Dr Chi-Foon Chan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Synopsys; Mr Eddy Chan, Commissioner for Innovation and Technology; Mr Anthony Tan, CEO, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp and Mr Simon Galpin, Director-General, Invest Hong Kong.

Apart from officiating at the Summit, Mrs Lau also visited the Sun Power Corporation, a NASDAQ listed company which designs, manufactures and delivers high-performance solar electric systems worldwide, as well as the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford University -a multidisciplinary establishment engaged in a broad spectrum of scientific research in advanced materials including thin film and nanotech.

While at Stanford University, Mrs Lau took the chance to have an exchange with students. She encouraged them to come to Hong Kong for visits, internships, exchanges and career development, noting that Hong Kong remains an attractive place for those looking for international and Mainland exposure.

[click here to read the full text of Mrs. Lau’s speech at the Summit]

SCED calls for scientific research collaboration and IT partnership

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau encouraged scientists and IT companies in San Francisco to come to Hong Kong for collaboration in research work and business partnerships.

On her third day visit to the West Coast, Mrs Lau was in San Francisco visiting the Mission Bay Campus of the University of California, San Francisco on June 5. Opened in 2003 with a 57.5-acre campus and still being expanded, it is the largest biomedical university expansion in the US providing an environment for interdisciplinary collaboration among basic scientists, clinical researchers and physicians to make new biomedical discoveries.

Mrs Lau heard with interest how the campus could be developed as a world-class biotechnology cluster under a public-private partnership project. She toured the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) on the campus and received a briefing by the institute’s director, Dr Regis Kelly, on how he forged co-operative ventures between university campuses and private industry. She said QB3 was a useful reference for Hong Kong in reinforcing the biotechnology cluster in the Hong Kong Science Park and hoped that more R&D collaborative opportunities could be explored with the institute.

Later in the day, Mrs Lau officiated at the “Hong Kong – Smart City, Smart Life” reception organized by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (San Francisco) to promote Hong Kong’s participation in the Expo 2010 in Shanghai to showcase how technology and innovation have enriched life in Hong Kong.

Speaking at the reception, Mrs Lau cited the Octopus card system to illustrate Hong Kong’s achievements in turning technology into a commercial success. With a penetration rate of almost three times Hong Kong’s 7 million population, the Octopus has been recognized as the world’s most successful smart card payment system.

A video showing the smart card technology which will be showcased at the Hong Kong Pavilion exhibition at the World Expo 2010 was launched by Mrs. Lau at the reception.

Noting that the IT software and services market in Mainland China was one of the world’s fastest growing, she said that small and medium-sized IT firms around the world wishing to serve this market could team up with Hong Kong companies.

“There is no better place to find a partner to help address the huge Mainland market. I invite you to explore the opportunities to partner with our innovative and capable IT companies,” Mrs Lau concluded.