I&T opportunities abound in ASEAN

When Chief Executive John Lee visits Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam later this month, Legislative Councillor for the Technology & Innovation Functional Constituency Duncan Chiu will be part of his delegation.

Looking ahead to the visit, Mr Chiu highlighted that the total population of the three countries – each of them member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – exceeds 120 million, a figure that represents huge market potential. He said he hopes to use the visit to look at ways of addressing Hong Kong’s manpower shortage in the innovation and technology sector.

“We have actually quite a bit of connection with Vietnam in the tech sector. I think some companies, I know they have already outsourced some development work to Vietnam. The English standard of a lot of the younger generation in Vietnam has improved a lot, so that solves the previous big communication problem.”

He noted that the Vietnam’s local development potential is enormous, meaning that opportunities abound for Hong Kong firms focused on research and development and advanced technology.

“Expanding from Hong Kong into the Vietnam market is another possibility because they have almost (a) 100 million population in Vietnam,” he said. “The economy is actually quite vibrant recently and that is actually a big opportunity for Hong Kong companies to export there, in terms of hardware or software products. I think Hong Kong has a lot of good technology products. If we understand how to market and package them, there is huge potential in these countries.”

Mr Chiu added that healthcare technology developed by Hong Kong’s universities – from medical devices and diagnostics tools to solutions that adopt artificial intelligence – can be marketed in Southeast Asian countries that do not have the facilities to manufacture such technology on their own.

Last year, Mr Chiu followed in the Chief Executive’s footsteps as he visited Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He said a Hong Kong delegation led by Mr Lee will be able to interact with top-level government officials to learn more about local policies, management and regulations.

He stressed that such face-to-face interactions will help to build and strengthen business relationships and friendships.