Our Hong Kong Foundation wants R&D spending to rise to 1 percent of GDP

The government should raise its current annual research and development (R&D) spending from only 0.4 percent of GDP to 1 percent soon, suggests a report by Our Hong Kong Foundation, a think tank chaired by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, released on Friday.

It also urged the government to inject an additional HK$50 billion into the Research Grant Council endowment fund, increasing the volume from the current HK$23 billion to HK$73 billion. The proposal aims to help the city catch up with neighboring regions and international cities in terms of technology development.

The report comes after the SAR established its Innovation and Technology Bureau last month.

In the region, Hong Kong's official R&D spending of 0.4 percent of GDP was way behind Singapore and South Korea - both on 0.8 percent. The figure was 0.9 percent in the US.

In the private sector, Hong Kong sees only 0.3 percent of its GDP put into R&D annually, whereas Singapore records 1.3 percent and the US 1.9 percent.

The mainland altogether inputs 2.2 percent of its GDP into the technology sector. In Shenzhen, the gap is even bigger - Hong Kong's neighboring city and competitor has poured 4.5 percent of its GDP into the sector.

As science and technology had become a strong dynamo of economic growth, Hong Kong must become a leading developer of technology, the foundation's Executive Director Eva Cheng Li Kam-fun said.

"With its mature free market, legal system, talent pool and unique position between the mainland and the world, Hong Kong has its advantages in high-tech development," Cheng said.

She said the city trailed others in this area mainly as a result of endless social wrangling. Thus she urged lawmakers to amend the copyright ordinance and regulate financial innovations such as crowd-funding to validate the city's science and technology ambitions.

Inputting capital was not merely spending money, the foundation's Senior Consultant Stephen Wong Yuen-shan reassured the public. It generated taxes, upgraded the economic structure and offered opportunities for young people's upward mobility.

luisliu@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/19/2015 page6)