S for IT visits San Francisco to strengthen innovation and technology ties (with photos)

     The Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, spoke on the opportunities presented by Hong Kong's participation in developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) into an international innovation and technology (I&T) hub at a leadership luncheon held in San Francisco today (September 18, US West Coast time) on "Bay-to-Bay" connection and Hong Kong's technology development.
      
     Mr Yang said the GBA brings together the competitive advantages of the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province. This far-reaching economic development concept generates enormous opportunities, via a vibrant consumer market of over 70 million people and a combined gross domestic product of US$1.6 trillion, comparable to that of Korea. The GBA development has a strong focus on I&T. Being the most internationalised city in the GBA, Hong Kong will play a key role in the GBA development, and particularly in the I&T sector.
      
     "We are working together with Shenzhen to develop the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park. This roughly 1 square kilometre site at the Shenzhen border, called the Loop, will be the largest ever Science Park for Hong Kong. Together with the 3 sq km site in Shenzhen being developed across the border, this Park will become the ideal place for I&T companies around the world to establish R&D centres to leverage the competitive advantages of both Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and to accelerate their access to the Mainland market. The HKSAR Government has set aside US$2.6 billion for the first phase development of the Loop, with the first batch of buildings scheduled for completion by 2023," Mr Yang added.
      
     He encouraged technology enterprises in the United States to leverage on the opportunities brought about by the GBA development to achieve a win-win outcome.
      
     Earlier in the morning, Mr Yang visited the Google campus and discussed with its senior management Google Hong Kong's Smarter Digital City 3.0 white paper.
      
     During his stay in San Francisco on September 17, Mr Yang paid a visit to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Innovation's JLABS to learn more about its incubation programme in accelerating healthcare innovation. In addition to the opening of JLABS in Shanghai, Mr Yang encouraged J&J to strengthen collaboration with universities in Hong Kong and take part in the Health@InnoHK initiative focusing on healthcare technologies.
      
     Meeting top semiconductor executives was part of the programme in San Francisco. Mr Yang made a visit to Synopsys to learn more about the latest developments in semiconductor design software. Mr Yang also attended a dinner with the Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association.
      
     With the completion of the US leg of his visit, Mr Yang arrived in Vancouver this evening to begin a two-day visit to Canada as the last leg of his trip.