The International Science, Technology and Innovation Forum of Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Hong Kong Conference concluded Saturday, highlighting the growing role of China and other Asian and Global South nations and regions in driving global economic transformation through technological innovation.
The two-day conference, themed "Transitioning Towards the Future: Powered by Science, Technology and Innovation", was jointly hosted by the Boao Forum for Asia and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. It brought together government officials, representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs, and experts from over 20 countries and regions.
In his speech at the forum, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that Hong Kong is the only international city that combines both China's and the world's advantages under the principle of "one country, two systems". At a time when the trend of "technological decoupling" is on the rise, the openness concept proposed by Hong Kong shows its consistent position as an advocate of multilateralism.
"Hong Kong is deeply committed to building collaboration among governments, businesses and academic institutions everywhere. And rest assured, we will continue to advocate for free trade, economic openness and cross border investments. That will ensure that technology serves as a bridge, rather than a barrier to cooperation and the economic flourishing and societal well being it can bring us all," said Lee.
The Hong Kong Forum, with theme "Leveraging the Advantages of Connecting with Both the Mainland and the World to Foster Global Innovation and Technology Collaboration", will explore how Hong Kong can fully leverage its unique advantages of internal and external connectivity to promote efficient collaboration among the Government, industry, academia, research and investment, with a view to fostering global collaboration and innovation and technology development.
"The research and development platform of Inno-HK mainly focuses on two major fields. The first field is life and health, and the second is artificial intelligence and robotics. Having incubated over 100 science and technology innovation enterprises, of course, this is just the beginning. Then in the future, we will continue to build the third Inno-HK Research and Development platform, which will focus on advanced manufacturing, sustainable development, new energy and new materials," said Sun Dong, secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the HKSAR government.
"The Greater Bay Area has excellent industrial chains. I think the advantage of the Greater Bay Area in producing many household products and products used by the people in the field of artificial intelligence are quite obvious," said Guo Yike, provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The Boao Forum for Asia launched the International Science, Technology and Innovation Forum in 2019 to jointly explore the new framework of global science and technology governance, new trends in technological development, and simultaneously showcase cutting-edge technological achievements. Previously held in Macao, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, the forum was held in Hong Kong for the first time.
Boao tech forum in Hong Kong highlights innovation, economic transformation
