City's young creatives look to build a high-tech future

The authorities are providing premises and funding for a range of startups in expectation of future success, as Yang Wanli reports.

In May, Zhang Feifei traveled to Hong Kong for the first time. The 24 year old was one of millions of people from the Chinese mainland who visit the city every year, but unlike many travelers who follow the regular tourist routes, Zhang chose PMQ - a hub that serves the city's evolving creative industry - as her first stop.

As a recent graduate of Sichuan University's College of Art in Chengdu, the provincial capital, Zhang is interested in the ideas and work of new designers, most of whom are her peers.

"I wanted my trip to be unique, with a taste of the real, modern Hong Kong," she said. "My parents visited the city as part of a travel group 12 years ago, and their main purpose was shopping, like many other travelers back then. But in recent years, many of my friends have traveled here to explore different things, such as art and fashion."

Built in 1951 as the Police Married Quarters, PMQ was preserved by the city government as a site for the creative industry, and the compound has now developed into a hub to help startups transform creativity into business.

"I love working here, together with many young people who hold the same passion for making our future creative," said Micky Gangwani, head of events at Brinc, an internet of things accelerator in PMQ.

Hong Kong-born, but with Indian heritage, Gangwani said PMQ is a good combination of people and their cultures: "It's a mix of old and new, just like Hong Kong is now experiencing from being a colony to a region with fresh blood and vitality."

The compound is home to about 100 startups, from technology to art and design, and Gangwani said the small businesses are always happy to help each other: "If we have problems with product design or marketing, we turn to other teams in the building for help, just like a family."

Although he can speak a few sentences in Cantonese, Gangwani has become aware of the importance of learning Mandarin because China has developed dramatically in the past decade and his company is closely connected with partners in the mainland.

"We have offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou (Guangdong province). I go to the mainland every month. China is important for the world. Everything in the world is made in China. I think Hong Kong can be a good bridge between the mainland and the world, which also means good opportunities for us," he said.

Transformation

Located on Hollywood Road in Central district, PMQ has been transformed into a landmark for the creative industry, and has attracted more than 3 million visitors - about 30 percent from the mainland and overseas - every year since it opened in 2014.

"At the current state of my business, I am still struggling to gain more exposure for my own work. This had proven to be really difficult for designers. We often lack the appropriate PR experience to effectively promote ourselves, leading to disappointing business sustainability," said Belinda Chang, founder of Obellery, a jewelry store in PMQ.

"But we are fortunate to have PMQ behind us. They introduce us to a lot of different international trade fairs, helping us to decide which are suitable for our product type and providing sponsorship for us to attend fairs abroad."

According to Stephen Ip, PMQ's executive director, the hub nurtures the new generation of local designers by offering stable and affordable rents - usually, rental of a studio is about 40 to 50 percent lower than that of a commercial building in the same area.

"A resources center offers various support services to tenants, including training to help local designers launch their brands, consulting services and networking with manufacturers, buyers and overseas designers," he said.

About 130 studio units are available in PMQ. "We welcome designers to apply for studios. The key requirement is that our tenants must keep the studio door open," he added.

"We encourage designers to collaborate with fellow designers and interact with their customers. It creates a platform for them to introduce their brand story, their products or services and creative processes, and to keep a close watch on changing market trends."

Creative economy

To boost Hong Kong's creative economy, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau set up an agency called CreateHK in 2009. It provides government resources to promote and accelerate the sector's development, aiming to promote Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital.

"Hong Kong enjoys several advantages in both geographic location and resources," said David Chung, deputy secretary for the city's Innovation and Technology Bureau.

He added that the city's location at heart of Asia means it is a gate way to the Chinese mainland and has world-leading infrastructure that provides a platform for startups.

"It also has diverse cultural and social backgrounds, with a unique blend of Eastern and Western cultures. The region also has a strong, creative human capital base supported by world-famous tertiary institutions that offer creative industry-related education," he said. "More important, we have high respect for intellectual property, which is crucial for the creative industry."

As a financial support project with objectives in line with a strategic direction to drive the creative industry, a $300 million fund was established in 2009.

Since it started in 2011, the fund has covered design-related projects which were previously financed by the DesignSmart Initiative. In 2013, the CreateSmart Initiative was given a top-up of $300 million, and the Design-Business Collaboration Scheme, which encourages the wider use of design by small and medium-sized enterprises, was also placed under the CSI.

By March last year, the DesignSmart Initiative had received 509 applications. So far, 270 projects have been approved, involving $570 million in funding. Meanwhile, more than 160 applications have been received by the Design-Business Collaboration Scheme, of which 52 have been approved, with funding of $1.85 million.

Dramatic changes

In recent decades, the world has witnessed dramatic changes as a result of the development of science and technology, and Hong Kong's plan to build the city into Asia's creative center has been boosted by innovative ideas from scientific talent, according to Chung.

As the city's most important incubator, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp was ranked fifth in the global startup ecosystem last year, according to the statistics from a recent survey by Invest Hong Kong, the government's investment promotion agency.

The data show that the number of new employees at Hong Kong startups jumped from 3,721 in 2015 to 5,229 last year, and 48 co-working spaces were available.

"We will foster the next generation of scientific talent, turning Hong Kong into a center for technological innovation, enhancing the city's diversified economy and guiding Hong Kong into a new era of prosperity," said Fanny Law, chairperson of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp.

In the past year, several world-leading research institutes have chosen Hong Kong as their overseas research center. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology opened its first-ever overseas "Innovation Node" in the science and technology park, along with the Karolinska Institutet, one of the largest and most-prestigious medical universities, which opened its first hub outside Sweden there last year.

"Overseas medical research programs - for example, some related to stem cells - prefer to conduct their research in Hong Kong because we have a mix of races and our medical system follows the same protocols as those in many Western countries. In addition, we have far fewer language barriers," Law said.

In the light of fierce competition from mainland cities, Hong Kong faces problems in its bid to become the region's innovation hub, according to Law: "It is important to be clear about what the mainland needs from us - it could be a historic opportunity for our future development. Our talent and experience can contribute to the acceleration of the internationalization of mainland enterprises, while the resources and market in the mainland will benefit us."

Contact the writer at yangwanli@chinadaily.com.cn

Students walk past PMQ, an incubator for Hong Kong's burgeoning creative industry.Li Peng / Xinhua