National industrial strategies, the subject of intense study and debates in the 1980s in the wake of the phenomenal success of Japan’s industrial economy, have returned to the centre stage of global attention. Much of this stems from the fact that two of the world’s largest economies, the US and China, have focused more on industrial policy.
In August 2022, US President Joe Biden signed into law two pieces of legislation, the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided billions of dollars of subsidies, loans and tax incentives to revitalise American semiconductor manufacturing and accelerate the country’s green transition.
China has been agonising over the need to enhance productivity, and hence the profit earned from every piece of good produced, ever since it became a manufacturing powerhouse. Why not earn more by making your own smartphones than by making or assembling parts for Apple’s smartphones?
China has long strived to move up the technology ladder to generate more socio-economic benefits as well as strengthen national security.
The adoption of “new quality productive forces” has become the centrepiece of China’s economic credo ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping started touting it as the locomotive of high-quality growth in September 2023. The goals are to promote the development of “strategic industries” and the “industries of the future”. In pursuit of these goals, China put together its largest ever investment fund amounting to US$47.5 billion to support the semiconductor industry.
Hong Kong had few incentives to invest in technology or selected industrial sectors when its free-market economic model built upon free trade was working well. But a major shock came during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By that time, after Hong Kong’s light manufacturing industries had migrated to mainland China, the city had become a predominantly service-oriented economy. When local consumption and regional demand for Hong Kong’s services cratered, the economy nosedived into a recession.
Beijing came to Hong Kong’s rescue in 2003 by sending the city waves of visitors and quality enterprises from the mainland for listing on Hong Kong’s stock exchange. Mainland China enjoyed a prolonged period of unbroken, high-speed growth after joining the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Riding on the surge of service demand from the Chinese mainland’s newly prosperous society, there was arguably no need for Hong Kong to relearn how to make anything.
The global financial crisis of 2008 forced Hong Kong to rethink the need to develop new industries, but there was no real effort to re-industrialise or make serious investments in technology. Despite the creation of an Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau in 2015, scant progress has been made in articulating a comprehensive industrial policy. Billions have been spent since then, but the emergence of new technology-based industries remained a pipe dream.
Mainland China’s service economy, transport infrastructure and technological innovations have improved so much that it has become more competitive than Hong Kong when it comes to providing these services, except for in high-end legal, professional and business sectors.
Faced with an existential need to diversify, the government doubled down on ambitious projects to overcome the key bottlenecks hindering the development of tech-based industries of scale – namely land, funding and talent.
When it comes to land, the government has been embarking on ambitious projects to build science parks on an unprecedented scale. The San Tin Technopole being developed in the Northern Metropolis, together with the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau Loop, will produce around 600 hectares of land for tech-based development, much larger than the existing science park in Tai Po.
The government is leaving no stone unturned to produce more land for technological development. A two-hectare formed site at Sandy Ridge, originally earmarked for building a complex of crematorium and columbarium, will be repurposed for use as data centres.
There also plans to turn a 28-hectare site currently used as a sewage treatment plant in Sha Tin into a site for tech development. This area, combined with planned reclamation of 60 hectares of land at Ma Liu Shui, will produce another 88 hectares for tech development.
More land for tech development could be made available if the government follows the example set by the Airport Authority to take advantage of land from mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area development zone for tech development. The Airport Authority’s logistics centre in Dongguan has enabled it to acquire land at a more reasonable price to achieve seamless transfer of goods from the mainland to Hong Kong’s airport.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s administration has set up the Hong Kong Investment Corporation in charge of a HK$62 billion fund (US$7.9 billion), including HK$30 billion earmarked for co-investment in tech enterprises.
More funds will be channelled to tech projects under the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, which requires each successful applicant to allocate 10 per cent of the required investment of HK$30 million to tech projects selected by the Hong Kong Investment Corporation.
As for talent, the government has introduced the Top Talent Pass Scheme, and streamlined entry procedures that are making it easier for information and technology professionals to work in Hong Kong.
The current administration has made the boldest and most direct intervention in the economy to jump-start technology-based industries. Resources are being mobilised on an unprecedented scale. Success will depend on whether the markets will pick up the ball and run with it.
中譯本:滯後於科技發展的香港必須取得成功
國家產業戰略在20世紀80年代曾成為美國研究和辯論的主題,當時日本工業經濟取得了驚人的成功。如今,國家產業戰略再次成為全球關注的焦點。其中很大一部分原因是世界上兩個最大的經濟體——美國和中國——更加關注產業政策。
2022年8月,美國總統喬·拜登簽署了兩項法案,分別是《晶片和科學法案》和《通脹減輕法案》,為振興美國半導體製造業和加速國家的綠色轉型提供了數十億美元的補貼、貸款和稅收激勵。
自從中國成為製造業大國以來,提高生產力和從每件產品中獲得的利潤一直是中國苦苦思索的問題。為什麼不通過製造自己的智能手機而不是為蘋果的智能手機製造或組裝零部件來賺更多錢呢?
中國一直努力向科技鏈條的高端邁進,以產生更多的社會經濟效益,並加強國家安全。
自從中國國家主席習近平在2023年9月將“新質生產力”宣傳為高質量增長的引擎以來,其採用已成為中國經濟信條的核心。其目標是促進“戰略性產業”和“未來產業”的發展。為了實現這些目標,中國組建了規模空前的投資基金,金額達475億美元,以支持半導體產業。
當香港的自由市場經濟模式建立在自由貿易的基礎上並運作良好時,投資於技術或選擇的產業部門對香港來說並沒有太多的激勵。但在1997年亞洲金融危機期間,一次重大衝擊發生了。那時,香港的輕工製造業已經遷移到中國大陸,香港成為以服務為主導的經濟體。當當地消費和區域對香港服務的需求急劇下降時,經濟陷入衰退。
2003年,北京派遣了大批遊客和來自中國大陸的優質企業前往香港上市,從而挽救了香港。自2001年加入世界貿易組織以來,中國大陸一直保持著持續的高速增長。
憑藉來自中國大陸新興富裕社會的服務需求激增,可以說香港沒有必要重新學習如何製造任何產品。
2008年的全球金融危機迫使香港重新思考發展新興產業的必要性,但並沒有真正努力進行再工業化或在技術方面進行重大投資。儘管2015年成立了創新科技及產業局,但在制定全面的產業政策方面進展甚微。自那時以來,已經花費了數十億資金,但新技術產業的出現仍然是一種遙不可及的夢想。
中國大陸的服務經濟、交通基礎設施和技術創新取得了巨大進步,使其在提供這些服務方面比香港更具競爭力,除了在高端法律、專業和商業領域之外。
面臨多樣化的存在性需求,香港政府加倍努力解決阻礙科技產業規模發展的關鍵瓶頸問題,包括土地、資金和人才。
在土地方面,政府一直在著手實施規模空前的科學園區建設專案。在北部都會發展中的新田科技園,以及位於落馬洲的香港-深圳創新科技園,將提供約600公頃的土地用於科技發展,比泰晤士河科學園區的現有土地面積要大得多。
政府不遺餘力地提供更多用於科技發展的土地。原本計畫用於建設殯葬設施的沙嶺地段,面積為兩公頃,將改變用途用作數據中心。
還計畫將沙田一個目前用作污水處理廠的28公頃土地改造成科技發展用地。這個區域加上計畫在馬料水填海60公頃的土地,將提供另外88公頃的科技發展用地。
如果政府效仿機場管理局的做法,利用大灣區發展區域內中國大陸城市的土地用於科技發展,將可以提供更多的科技發展用地。機場管理局在東莞設立的物流中心使其能夠以更合理的價格獲取土地,實現了從中國大陸到香港機場的貨物無縫轉運。
行政長官李家超的政府已經成立了香港投資公司,負責管理620億港元(79億美元)的基金,其中包括300億港元用於與科技企業的共同投資。
根據新的資本投資入境計畫,更多的資金將被引導到科技專案中。該計畫要求每個成功申請人將所需的3000萬元港元的投資中的10%分配給香港投資公司選定的科技專案。
至於人才方面,政府推出了頂尖人才通行計畫,並簡化了入境程式,使得資訊技術專業人士更容易在香港工作。
現任政府在推動基於科技的產業發展方面進行了最大膽和最直接的干預。資源正在以前所未有的規模動員起來。成功與否將取決於市場是否能夠接過這個球並繼續前進。