HK and GBA will outshine US Bay rivals: Paul Chan

In the News

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po envisions Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area becoming a pioneering global hub for finance and innovation, surpassing the Bay Areas of San Francisco and New York.

Chan outlined the city’s ambition as he delivered a speech at the 2025 Technology for Change Asia forum this week.

According to The Standard, the finance chief highlighted the government’s substantial investments and the formulation of a comprehensive strategy in innovation and technology, saying: “We are scaling the tech ecosystem in Hong Kong from upstream to downstream.”

He also emphasized the complementary strengths of Hong Kong and its GBA sister cities, pointing to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s ranking, which put the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster at the world’s number two in innovation. He added Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis project will support the synergized development of the SAR and the GBA, which will be the home to many strategic tech companies.

“Hong Kong’s value for tech is clear: together with the GBA, we will emerge as a leading international financial and innovation centre, more than combining the advantages of both the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York Bay Area,” he said as reported by the HK daily.

The finance chief went on to underscore Hong Kong’s strength in providing capital – from angel investments to venture capital, private equity and fundraising through initial public offerings. He expects Hong Kong’s IPO market to raise more funds than last year, which stood at US$11 billion (HK$85.8 billion), ranking fourth globally.

“This year, we are benefiting from the optimism in the tech sector and the continued support from the central authorities in encouraging leading mainland companies to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,” Chan said.

“We are expecting to raise some US$17 billion to US$20 billion this year.” Regarding artificial intelligence, the finance chief sees the emerging technology as rapidly reshaping production, business and consumption models while empowering the upgrading of traditional industries and creating new ones.

Chan highlighted China’s strengths in AI, which are not limited to the rapid rise of DeepSeek. “Its strengths in AI are demonstrated not only by groundbreaking large language models like DeepSeek and others, but also by a multitude of AI inventions and applications, ranging from self-driving cars to embodied AI.”

Chan stressed that Hong Kong has “robust” basic research capabilities, with five universities ranked among the global top 100, and three institutions among the world’s top 25 in AI and data science, The Standard reports. MDT