Transforming the Greater Bay Area into the Global Innovation Powerhouse

GBA

By Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau

Since the launch of the Outline Development Plan for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in February, there has been a great level of excitement within the technology industry on whether the GBA will emerge as the global innovation powerhouse.

Hong Kong and other cities in the region have all necessary prerequisites for success in digital transformation. At Microsoft’s inaugural Greater Bay Area Innovation Summit in March, I was very impressed by the innovative solutions showcased by our technology partners and rising startups in the region. There is no doubt that there is already significant innovation activity and potential in the Area.

So, the question is: how can we unlock the region’s full potential and become a global innovation powerhouse? To Microsoft, here are three areas that we think are essential for the region to thrive and flourish.

  1. Facilitate the cross-boundary flow of data, talent and knowledge: Data is the lifeblood of the digital economy, and the flow of data across the GBA is fundamental in driving digital transformation. Facilitating better data exchange across the Area helps foster tighter collaboration for business and academic purpose. For instance, encouraging exchange of research findings and data can accelerate technology development, as well as facilitate the operation of multinational companies. Recent research from LinkedIn has revealed that talents in GBA are younger but not inexperienced compared to other bay areas around the world. With Hong Kong’s track record in nurturing successful start-ups, I believe the government and the business community can help tech talent within the Area to further develop their skills and capture unprecedented opportunities. Examples include introducing technical training programs or creating platforms to network and exchange ideas, such as large-scale tech summits and hackathons.
  2. Unleash the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT): With the geographic disparity and diverse language capabilities across the Area, AI will play a key role in enabling companies to bridge these challenges and achieve more. Some of our partners have already developed innovative AI solutions tailored to the characteristic of the region – for example, an AI-powered chatbot which can handle large amount of customer enquires with real-time English, Mandarin and Cantonese translation capability. There is also a solution which harnesses AI to analyze the sentiment of netizens based on discussions on social media platforms in multiple languages, to provide customer insights that can enable businesses to make smarter and more informed decisions.
  3. Go global: As a well-established international finance and trade center, Hong Kong is the ideal launchpad for startups across the GBA to go global. Apart from leveraging Hong Kong’s edge in financial and professional services, entrepreneurs and companies in the Area should also seek to cooperate with technology partners with global network to help them scale globally. A trusted partner with strong network can also help these startups and companies go to market more easily.

By fostering the flow of resources across the Area and empowering its talent to be future-ready, it is only a matter of time before GBA rises as a global powerhouse for innovation.

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