Hong Kong urged to expedite Northern Metropolis to be digital economy ‘superconnector’

Hong Kong should speed up the development of the Northern Metropolis and strengthen cooperation with mainland China to become the “superconnector” and “super value-adder” of the digital economy, Beijing’s top official in the city has said.

Zheng Yanxiong, director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, also said at the World Internet Conference Asia-Pacific Summit on Monday that the city should make the most of its governing principle to facilitate international collaboration.

“[Hong Kong should] accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis and leverage the Hong Kong Science Park and Cyberport – together with important platforms of Shenzhen, Qianhai, Hetao and Nansha – to attract enterprises in the digital economy,” Zheng said.

“This is to form an industry cluster covering artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain and more to facilitate the synergetic development of the digital economy.”

He also called for the industrialisation of digital and technological research.

Giving his views on how Hong Kong could be a digital economy “superconnector” and “super value-adder”, Zheng said the city should make use of “one country, two systems” principle in promoting the safe and orderly flow of cross-border data and creating platforms for international cooperation in technology regulation, data management, and intellectual property rights protection.