I&T is the way forward for HK: John Lee

Chief Executive John Lee on Friday said innovation and technology is the way forward for Hong Kong to remain competitive and prosperous. Speaking on an RTHK phone-in programme on his latest Policy Address, Lee said the good research being carried out needs to be turned into marketable products that can help society. He said the territory has attracted a lot of I&T talent to grow the field. "We have created platforms for people to gather together and so far, we've got two platforms, which we call InnoHK. [They] have gathered altogether 2,500 very top leading researchers from different parts of the world. They gather both physically in Hong Kong and also online," he said. "That is some of the things that we do. We want to set up more laboratories so that there will be more possible projects to be transformable and then we want more money to be put into research." Lee added that the government cannot be the only source of investment in the field. "We're still only investing about 1.07 percent of the whole GDP of Hong Kong, but for many successful countries, you have to at least have 5 percent to talk about a level that will ensure that we can really go ahead. So we are working very hard," he said.