"Hong Kong's new industrialization does not mean bringing land- and labor-intensive manufacturing back to Hong Kong, but rather introducing high-end manufacturing suitable for Hong Kong's development based on focusing on the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, new materials and intelligent production processes. Promote the upgrading and transformation of traditional manufacturing industries and use innovative technology to enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry." said Joseph Chan, Chairman of the Hong Kong Productivity Council.
The Hong Kong Productivity Council recently held the "Hong Kong Industry Important Partner Launch Conference", where more than 40 multinational and local companies based in Hong Kong exchanged experiences on new industrialization transformation, involving high-end electronic products, food processing, emerging nanomaterials, proprietary Chinese medicines, and health care. products and other industries.
Assist enterprises in transformation and upgrading
The Hong Kong Productivity Council is an important component of Hong Kong's innovation and technology system. It is one of the core facilitators and promoters of cultivating new productivity and realizing new industrialization in Hong Kong. It drives enterprises to improve productivity through technological innovation and supports the industry, especially small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry. , move towards sustainable development of smart manufacturing, fully cooperate with the Hong Kong SAR government to support the upgrading and transformation of traditional industries, develop and expand strategic emerging industries, promote new industrialization in Hong Kong and the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and promote Hong Kong to become an international innovation and technology center and smart city .
Sun Tung, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the Hong Kong SAR Government, said that in recent years, the Hong Kong Productivity Council has vigorously promoted new industrialization and provided a variety of smart solutions to give Hong Kong industry a new look. "We look forward to assisting enterprises in transforming and upgrading through technological empowerment with the support of the Productivity Council and various funding schemes, improving production efficiency, and making the brand made in Hong Kong even brighter," he said.
The 2023 Policy Address delivered by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lee Ka-chiu, proposed a number of policy measures to continue to promote new industrialization, including establishing a "New Industrial Development Office", optimizing the "New Industrialization Funding Scheme", and establishing a HK$10 billion "New Industrial Acceleration Program" wait. At this conference, Sun Dong announced that the optimization measures of the "New Industrialization Funding Plan" were officially launched. Companies participating in the plan can carry out up to 3 projects at the same time and receive up to HK$45 million in funding. He encouraged the companies present to submit applications as soon as possible and seize development opportunities.
Improve quality and efficiency and add support
Participants said that thanks to the Hong Kong SAR government's funding policy to optimize new industrialization and the assistance of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, they successfully obtained funding to use innovative technologies to transform and upgrade their businesses. Hong Kong corn juice brand "2+3" is one of the beneficiaries.
"As the brand gradually gained popularity in Hong Kong, the company's original production lines were close to saturation, and the output gradually exceeded demand. In addition, due to production capacity and shelf life constraints, it was difficult for the products to expand to neighboring cities and even overseas markets. With the help of the Productivity Council, we The establishment of Hong Kong's first smart fresh corn juice production line not only increases production capacity by nine times, but also improves sterilization technology." said Chen Jiaxin, director of Yijiaxin (Hong Kong) Industrial Co., Ltd., the parent company of "2+3".
Traditional industrial enterprises are also revitalizing themselves with the help of new industrialization. Hong Kong Wo Lee Group has more than 60 years of experience in steel supply. However, the welding of medium and high-strength steel mainly relies on manual labor. The workload is heavy and the working environment is difficult. There is a long-term shortage of welding practitioners. Through the introduction of digital technology, welding workers only need to control multiple robotic arms through tablet computers to weld workpieces using optimal process parameters. This not only ensures that workers work in a safe environment, but also helps attract more new people to join the industry in the long run and pass on valuable industrial skills. "At present, the transformation of new industrialization has greatly improved our productivity and reduced costs. We are now continuing to increase the number of young people to receive training in the construction industry." said Li Ewei, CEO of Hong Kong Heli Green Power Co., Ltd.
"Wai Yuen Tong" is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine brand in Hong Kong with a history of more than 100 years. The company's executive director Tang Hui-man said that because the packaging process was relatively tedious, it was difficult to hire enough female workers in the past. After the automatic packaging system is applied, female workers can work 90% of the time. Other higher value-added processes, such as medicine frying and pharmaceutical making, etc. The number of application projects for this new industrialization funding plan has increased to three, which will help further improve product packaging production lines.
Seize development opportunities in the Bay Area
As a partner of the Hong Kong SAR government in promoting Hong Kong's new industrialization, the Hong Kong Productivity Council has so far implemented more than 1,200 smart projects in the Greater Bay Area, and more than 25 industries have achieved smart upgrades. In 2023, the Productivity Council won 103 international and local awards and honors, and nearly 80% of the award-winning projects were successfully implemented to solve industry pain points.
"In the past 10 years, the Hong Kong Productivity Council has assisted the industry in promoting smart projects in the Greater Bay Area. About 70% of the projects have been implemented in the mainland, mainly in Dongguan and Shenzhen, and the remaining approximately 30% have been implemented in Hong Kong." Hong Kong Productivity Council Mainland Business CEO Li Shaobin said that the project involves Greater Bay Area companies of different sizes and engaged in manufacturing. Some companies are headquartered in Hong Kong and have production bases located in different cities in the Greater Bay Area, covering electronics, jewelry, food, textiles, life and health, and automobiles. parts and components industries.
"Hong Kong takes the transformation of scientific and technological achievements as the starting point and launches the 'Industry-University-Research 1+ Plan' to promote the transformation of high-quality scientific research achievements into advanced productivity, and actively deploy and strive to promote artificial intelligence, third-generation Internet, biopharmaceuticals, new energy technology, satellites Emerging and future industries such as technology,” Sun Dong said.
“The Greater Bay Area has a wide range of application scenarios and strong ability to transform scientific research results, providing huge opportunities for Hong Kong. I firmly believe that Hong Kong’s advanced manufacturing and modern service industries will occupy an important position in the industrial chain of the Greater Bay Area. "Chan Zuheng said that looking forward to the future, the Productivity Council will fully cooperate with the Hong Kong SAR government's "grabbing enterprises" and "grabbing talents" measures, and continue to help local enterprises transform and upgrade to better integrate into the overall development of the country. (Zhang Pan, People’s Daily overseas edition reporter)