Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Monday that Hong Kong has to fully support its innovative industry, in order to contribute to the country's drive for the development of new quality productive forces. Speaking at an awards ceremony for the Science and Technology Innovation Prize, Chan said the SAR has been making use of its advantage as an international financial centre to provide capital support for the innovative industry. He noted that in the past couple of years, the government has attracted more than 100 firms to the SAR specialising in areas such as artificial intelligence and big data, biotechnology, as well as new energy and materials. "These companies will invest more than HK$50 billion in total in the coming few years, creating more than 17,000 jobs, many of which are research and managerial roles," Chan said. Dennis Lo, who chairs the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation which gives out the annual awards, said the Hetao tech zone development between the SAR and Shenzhen will become a major cooperation platform within the Greater Bay Area. He noted that the country and the SAR government are going full speed ahead with building Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology centre. The five laureates of the Science and Technology Innovation Prize this year are Chai Yang, associate dean of Polytechnic University's science faculty; Chinese University's medical school assistant dean Ng Siew-chien; mechanical and automation engineering professor Chen Shih-chi, also from Chinese University; along with City University's chemistry professor Zhang Hua and computer science scholar Wang Cong.
