Hong Kong took a major stride in collaboration with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to advance the low-altitude economy, as The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Greater Bay Area Low Altitude Economy Alliance (GBA LAEA) jointly hosted the first Low Altitude Summit on Friday.

At the summit, HKU endorsed a memorandum of cooperation with Harmony Tech, a Zhuhai-based digital tech company whose system deals with cross-regional and cross-border low-altitude management.

The GBA LAEA also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shenzhen Aviation Association.

READ MORE: HKU, alliance team up to help boost low-altitude economy

Huang Lixi, professor of the Research Institute for Civil Low Altitude Aviation at HKU, said that the alliance and association will draft a white paper on the low-altitude economy, in order to guide the industry’s development in the GBA.

After the 2024 Policy Address proposed fostering a low-altitude economy, the research institute was jointly established by HKU and the GBA LAEA last year, with the aim of creating a joint innovation platform and a continuous talent development platform.

Huang said the institute will open applications for research funding in 2025 and establish two joint laboratories. It will formulate a prototype development plan for low-altitude economic devices and study the navigation safety technology of devices. In addition, the institute will also set up courses for postgraduate and doctoral students.

READ MORE: HK forges ahead plans to develop low-altitude economy

To promote more applications, the Hong Kong Special Administration Region government last year launched the Low-altitude Economy Regulatory Sandbox, which enables industry stakeholders to test and conduct trials on some projects within pre-defined air routes.

“The first batch of applications for the trial projects of the sandbox project closed at the end of last year and will be gradually implemented in the first quarter of this year,” said Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan. “Among the 72 projects locally and from the Chinese mainland, we saw a variety of application scenarios, including logistics and distribution, public services and scientific research applications.”

The SAR government will simultaneously review the lawsand infrastructure planning, and then draw up a preliminary blueprint for the overall construction of the GBA low-altitude cross-boundary corridor, Chan said.

Contact the writer at thor_wu@chinadailyhk.com