21-AUG-1992 16:19
BRITISH TRADE COMM
QODLAD. § VISIT TO HONG KONG
P.02
TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION IN HONG KONG: BRITISH INTERESTS
Hong Kong is a trading economy par excellence. The shortage of space (and now of people) produce some of the most efficient companies in the world at turning goods and people round at high speed, in great numbers, and at a handsome profit. Obvious examples are the MTR, the cargo handlers at the airport and the container terminals. Their success, and that of thousands of smaller companies, generate the high land
values that are in turn the fuel that drives the economy.
The opening up of China has given a huge boost to that process and is, in the short term, the main reason for the high performance of the economy, despite world-wide recession and caution in Japan. But will it last? As firms migrate over
the border and new infrastructure is built in China, so a
number of the more thoughtful businessmen are considering the ways in which Hong Kong will adopt to a new challenge.
The
In theory Hong Kong has the assets to move up-market. services are as highly developed and the people as intelligent as anywhere in the world. There is a good a priori argument that future profits will go to those who innovate and invest in developing technologies for the regional market.
Against that are equally cogent arguments. As Britain has demonstrated over the decades, those who invent do not always reap the profits. Hong Kong companies are good at buying the appropriate technology cheaply. Moreover, there is no tradition of applied research in Hong Kong and the company structures are poorly adapted to long-term investment in brains. Above all, there is no tradition of joint
academic/government/business activity.
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