Startups off with a bang

Hong Kong's bid to be a world technology hub, favorable policies and Greater Bay Area integration have spurred a dramatic surge in the number of startups in the city in the past few years. Zhang Tianyuan and Liu Yifan report from Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has forged a robust entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in the past 25 years - with promising prospects and blessed with an abundance of talent, proximity to the Chinese mainland market, funding programs and favorable policies.

Riding high on its goal of becoming an international technology hub, Hong Kong has seen the number of startups in the city having almost quadrupled to 3,755 last year from about 1,000 in 2014, while venture capital investment surged to HK$41.7 billion ($5.3 billion) from HK$1.24 billion during the same period, based on official data.

Hong Kong has witnessed the birth and development of 18 unicorns across the technology and innovation sector, including high-end manufacturing, robotics and financial technology.

The 2021 Global Innovation Index, published by the World Intellectual Organization, ranked Hong Kong among the top 15 of some 130 economies.

Hong Kong's low tax structure and supportive policies are favorable for the growth of tech startups, said Terence Chong Tai-leung, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Economics Department and executive director of the Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance.

"Free capital flow is also attractive as it makes it convenient for these companies to expand their cross-border operations," he said.

Jonathan Cheung, co-founder and CEO of startup Inovo Robotics, said Hong Kong has sufficient academic talent to support the development of innovation and technology as the city is home to five of the world's top universities.

Five academies from Hong Kong's tertiary educational institutions - the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University - were listed last year among the world's top 100 universities, according to QS World University Rankings.