Speech by the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Health Summit 2026 (7 August 2026)
Antony, Carl, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning. It is my great pleasure to join you all at the Global Health Summit 2026 (“Summit”). The Summit brings together the smartest minds and innovators in the healthcare industry from around the world. For those who have travelled here for the event, a very warm welcome. I keenly look forward to benefiting from your wisdom in the discussions today and tomorrow.
Let me start by providing an overview of what the HKIC is about and why we are here. As the Patient Capital investment flagship wholly owned by and representing the HKSAR Government, we were set up in end 2022. 2024 was our first year of full operation, with the following progress so far:
- we have invested in over 200 companies in high-growth, high-impact sectors including biotech and health tech, which is one of the key focuses of the Summit;
- for the capital invested, around 70% was invested in companies in early and growth stages, meaning that we could be a natural partner with many entrepreneurs and innovators who are here today;
- with our direct and co-investment approach, we generated a since-inception net IRR (internal rate of return) of 14% as of end 2025 and achieved a capital multiplier ratio of 1 to >8, meaning that every single Hong Kong dollar invested by the HKIC has attracted over 8 Hong Kong dollars of long-term market capital, creating a win-win track record for the HKIC, our investee companies and partners, and our peer investors that co-invested with us. These peer investors include sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, family offices, university endowments, etc. from around the world; and
- with our support, the majority of our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland-based portfolio companies have expanded or are expanding overseas. Also, 11 of our companies were already listed in Hong Kong. More than 30 companies have submitted or planned to file IPO applications in Hong Kong in 2026. These evidenced the HKIC’s efforts to support our companies across geographies and different segments of the capital market as each company continues to grow.
In gist, the HKIC has a dual mandate, meaning that we invest for the future of Hong Kong in two ways, namely generating financial return and creating growth impetus for Hong Kong’s economy and society. We hope to do well commercially and do good socially, which align with the motto of New Frontier Group, our partner for co-hosting the Summit.
We look forward to spending time with all of you who are great innovators in your respective healthcare and medical fields. We also want to learn from you about the latest industrial and market trends, and explore with you the actionable investment opportunities. On that front, we believe that we can bring at least 3 things to the table for mutual benefit: Capital, Connection and Catalyst.
Capital
Capital is core to life sciences and healthcare development. The HKIC’s capital is characterised by our patience, proactiveness and professionalism. We are Patient Capital because we take a long-term view in grooming companies and talents. We know how difficult, uncertain and time-consuming the “Zero to One” journey could take. So we are here to contribute to accelerating “Zero to One”. In addition, we are also taking companies and talents from “Zero to One” to “One to Infinity” in terms of commercialisation and global impacts.
We are Proactive Capital. We support companies and talent with a wide spectrum of resources in our toolbox that go beyond capital, such as our local and international networks with capital owners who could invest in the projects we back and participate in the financing rounds that we lead; our established pool of local and international corporates who could be your future clients; application or clinical trial scenarios where you could test and iterate your products and services as robustly and quickly as possible to pave the way for the necessary legal and regulatory approvals; and others resources like talents from local universities and supply chain support from the Greater Bay Area.
Last but not least, we are Professional Capital. By building and maintaining a brand with professionalism aligned with international and market standards, we are in a position to add value by validating the companies and partners in our investment ecosystem. We are committed to establishing this positive and strong feedback loop of “projects, partnership and performance”. Each successful case of partnership translates into increased confidence and dry powder among our peer investors to invest in Hong Kong, or via Hong Kong into Chinese Mainland.
Connection
Connection is also key to the success of our investee companies and partners. Hong Kong is well positioned to be a “Super Connector” and “Super Value-adder”. Being able to connect and add value is very core to the HKIC’s playbook.
Therefore, we are here today to co-host the Summit. We are very excited by the trust and energy that we are able to build through this Summit, which we believe will translate into tangible takeaways for all the participants. In fact, this is the second year of the Summit. From our experience last year, innovation could be incubated, collaboration can be born and deals could be made literally as we speak now, say among members of the audience, during luncheon, coffee breaks or even in the hallway. This is the power of connection. We look forward to witnessing even more of that this year.
In terms of connection, the HKIC is prioritising two areas, namely cross-jurisdictional connection and cross-sectoral connection. These are the two themes that could potentially unlock outsized growth momentum for our companies and talent.
On cross-jurisdictional connection, for example, we facilitated novel drug developers in connecting their discovery engine in the GBA with Hong Kong’s best-in-class science and regulatory pathways; and we supported homegrown surgical robotics companies to commercially deploy their products across international markets, exporting Hong Kong’s wisdom in shaping the future of healthcare worldwide.
On cross-sectoral connection, for instance, we connected AI Large Language Model companies with drug discovery companies, making drug discovery faster, better and cheaper; we supported medical device innovators in leveraging cutting-edge technologies, such as brain-computer interfaces and neuromuscular regulation, to complete their entire development pipeline from chip to device and clinical translation; and we enabled companies focusing on women’s health to collaborate with local universities and hospitals, accelerating their clinical validation studies and treatment pilots.
Catalyst
Lastly, I would like to talk about our “One Hong Kong Team” approach which is a strong catalyst for all the positive growth momentum and opportunities I have mentioned. If you look at the line-up of speakers and attendees today, you will see how supportive the different key institutions from Hong Kong across “investment, industry, academic, research, government” are. This is a testament to how dedicated Hong Kong is supporting the development of the life and health technology industry here.
Hong Kong is very blessed with natural advantages to further the aforementioned development. “One Country, Two Systems”, rule of law, capital markets, and free flow of capital and data, to name but a few, are collectively making Hong Kong an ideal gateway. Guided by the National 15th Five-Year Plan and ongoing policy support from the HKSAR Government, Hong Kong is moving forward with the integrated upstream, midstream and downstream development of life and health technology.
In the HKIC’s ecosystem, which is part of this big picture, our investment focus has expanded from platform-based enterprises to vertical applications, including prevention, screening, diagnosis to treatments. This covers both Chinese and Western medicine, as well as sectors such as liquid biopsy, women’s health and longevity sciences. More success stories will come, and we look forward to exploring collaboration opportunities with all of you.
Closing
To close, thank you very much once again to all of you for being here for the Summit. Your presence represents a continued vote of confidence in advancing Hong Kong’s development into an international health and medical innovation hub. Also, our heartfelt thanks to New Frontier Group, without which this Summit would not be possible. I wish the Summit a great success, and look forward to all the inspiration and collaboration arising from it, which are going to benefit not only Hong Kong, but also the world and humanity. Thank you.