The designation of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions as international hubs for high-caliber talent by the Communist Party of China Central Committee in the resolution adopted at its recently concluded third plenary session is a well-thought-out strategy, one that aligns with the overall national strategy of achieving Chinese modernization through high-quality development.
High-quality development can only be made possible by fostering new quality productive forces, the core elements of which are essentially innovation and technology (I&T). And the advance of I&T requires an army of high-caliber talent. In this sense, the designation of Hong Kong as an international hub for high-caliber talent underscores the city’s significance in the national development strategy. It also attests to the consistency of the national strategy: The national 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) clearly indicates central government support for Hong Kong’s development into an international I&T center — for the benefit of both the HKSAR and the whole country.
In other words, the strategy of developing Hong Kong into an international I&T center to be supported by a large pool of high-caliber talent could not have been made on a whim but must have been conceived after a thorough study of the city’s merits. Indeed, Hong Kong possesses abundant scientific research resources, with five of the local universities ranking among the global top 100 and two medical schools ranking among the top 50 globally, as well as 16 State Key Laboratories and six Hong Kong Branches of Chinese National Engineering Research Centers operating in the city.
But Hong Kong’s existing scientific research resources and talent pool are far from sufficient for the city to play its designated role as an international hub for high-caliber talent that plays a significant role in the country’s modernization through high-quality development. The HKSAR still lags behind the Chinese mainland in terms of innovation: It was ranked 17th globally among 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2023, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, or five notches lower than the mainland (12th) and 12 places lower than Singapore (fifth).
To fulfill its expected role, Hong Kong must augment its talent pool and innovation prowess by large multiples of the existing level by attracting much more high-caliber talent from around the world. Here is where the city’s distinctive institutional strengths under the “one country, two systems” framework kick in. These include its common law system underpinned by judicial independence, a favorable business environment with efficient and transparent markets, a regulatory regime conforming to international rules, an efficient and clean government, a simple and low tax system, world-class professional services, and a free flow of factors of production including talent, capital and information.
But these institutional advantages, which match those of Singapore, are obviously a necessary but insufficient condition for Hong Kong to outperform in attracting and retaining high-caliber talent, and ultimately in achieving innovation output. Hong Kong was ranked 24th in the Innovation Output subindex of the 2023 Global Innovation Index, or 12 places lower than Singapore (12th). While the geopolitical factors to have emerged over the past several years have taken a toll on Hong Kong’s talent-attraction and innovation efforts, much of the city’s relative underperformance can be explained by the lack of robust downstream industries, particularly in advanced manufacturing, in the HKSAR that can sustain a large pool of high-caliber talent with sufficient career opportunities and high-paying jobs.
The HKSAR government has taken steps to rectify this deficiency. It promulgated the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint in December 2022, aimed at enhancing the city’s I&T ecosystem by consolidating its strengths in upstream basic research, accelerating the realization of midstream research and development outcomes and supporting the development of downstream industries. The blueprint has set promoting “new industrialization” as one of the four broad development directions for strengthening the city’s I&T ecosystem, which is unquestionably a step in the right direction.
But achieving “new industrialization” is conceivably a long process that could take years if not decades. The way for Hong Kong to push ahead with its talent-hub drive in the near to medium term is to accelerate its integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to achieve synergy by turning the whole region into a fully integrated I&T cluster.
In fact, the Global Innovation Index 2023 ranked the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster second among the top 100 clusters around the world for the fourth consecutive year. Further integration and stronger cooperation between Hong Kong and other GBA cities will help elevate the cluster’s competitiveness in attracting international talent and overall performance in I&T development, which necessitates not only shortening the physical distance between the two sides to create a genuine “one-hour living circle” by improving the customs clearance process but also bridging the institutional gap between the two sides by further aligning the regulatory regimes, a process that is expected to accelerate given that the resolution adopted by the CPC Central Committee at its recently concluded third plenary session emphasizes “steadily expanding institutional opening-up” and “promoting closer alignment of rules and mechanisms” in the GBA.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
