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Innovation and Technology

development plans under six major areas, namely 'Smart Mobility', 'Smart Living, 'Smart Environment,'Smart People, 'Smart Government' and 'Smart Economy, listing over 70 initiatives. To support smart city development, the government is pursuing three key digital infrastructure projects:

to give each Hong Kong resident a single digital identity for authentication in online transactions on a free and voluntary basis in the fourth quarter of 2020, and to launch an '¡AM Smart' platform providing one-stop personalised digital government services;

⚫ to implement a Pilot Multifunctional Smart Lamp-posts Scheme that collects real-time

city data to enhance urban management; and

⚫ to launch a next-generation government cloud infrastructure and build a big data

analytics platform in the third quarter of 2020.

The government will release Smart City Blueprint 2.0 for Hong Kong in 2020, describing the latest developments of various smart city initiatives and new initiatives to further smart city development.

In 2019, the government significantly expanded the coverage of free public Wi-Fi under the Wi-Fi Connected City programme. The number of Wi-Fi.HK hot spots increased by more than 12,000 to over 35,000, and the quality of the free service was enhanced.

Re-industrialisation

The government promotes re-industrialisation, the development of high-end manufacturing based on new technologies and smart production without taking up a lot of land, to identify a new area of economic growth for Hong Kong and to create more quality and diversified job opportunities.

To drive re-industrialisation, the Productivity Council helps local industries adopt technology relating to Industry 4.0. The INC Invention Centre, set up jointly with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology of Germany, runs an Industry 4.0 upgrade and recognition programme and holds workshops that encourage enterprises to adopt smart manufacturing technologies. The Inno Space managed by the Productivity Council provides workspace and technical support to start-up entrepreneurs, students and graduates, and promotes education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The HKSTPC is developing a Data Technology Hub and an Advanced Manufacturing Centre at Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, to be completed in 2020 and 2022 respectively. It is also studying a 56-hectare site near the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai boundary for the development of an industrial estate. The government plans to establish a $2 billion Re-industrialisation Funding Scheme that subsidises manufacturers on a government-enterprise matching basis of 1:2 to set up smart production lines in Hong Kong, and provide the HKSTPC with an additional $2 billion to develop a Microelectronics Centre.

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