Media365
For a group of 12 young entrepreneurs from Germany, the Greater Bay Area (GBA) offers unique opportunities to dramatically accelerate their start-up journey.
With the support of Hong Kong’s Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun, the entrepreneurs were part of a delegation that visited the GBA in September, organised in collaboration with Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE), an office under the government’s Labour and Welfare Bureau designed to attract international professionals and support industry growth in “eight centres”, including innovation and technology.
All 12 young talents were winners of a pitching competition – with nearly 600 entrants in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and deep tech to climate and sustainability, and health and biotechnology – co-organised by HKTE and Germany’s Young Founders Network (YFN), an association nurturing promising start-ups.
The field trip included meetings with local start-up founders, visits to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as Qianhai in Shenzhen, a fast-developing commerce and innovation hub with strong financial and technological ties to Hong Kong.
This year, Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou topped the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index, a ranking of the world’s most innovative hubs. The cluster’s achievement highlights its role in bringing together a diverse array of researchers, investors and entrepreneurs. Since their visit, several of the start-ups are exploring ways to expand their businesses in the GBA, drawn by the convergence of talent and resources, including Hong Kong’s established strengths in finance and logistics, coupled with strong government support for its technology infrastructure.
