Speech by the Chief Executive Officer at the “Future Technology · Future Scenarios · Future Talent” – Youth Scientists & Industry Application Scenario Matching Forum (15 October 2026)

Secretary Sun, Sophia, Samson, Paul, Dr Liu, Dr Wang, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.  It is my great pleasure to be here today.  Thanks to the Hong Kong Young Scientists Association and Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association for co-hosting this meaningful forum.  Our thanks also go to Inno Angel, one of our investment partners, for joining hands with us in building this financial-cum-innovation & technology ecosystem in Hong Kong and for Hong Kong. 

Today’s theme is “Future Technologies, Future Scenarios, Future Talent”.  My colleagues and I from the HKIC could testify that after travelling around the world to source and evaluate investment opportunities, there is no better place than our home Hong Kong to be qualified in hosting this forum.  Hong Kong is exactly the place where all these key elements supporting future development could be readily found. 

Hong Kong never stops re-inventing itself and progressing.  We are constantly moving forward towards the next chapter of development and prosperity. This is where the HKIC comes into the picture.  We were set up in 2022 as the Patient Capital investment flagship wholly owned by and representing the HKSAR Government.  Fast-tracking from then to today, we have already experienced a complete life cycle of investment in selected projects, having been through the following key milestones:

(i) we started off with a well-defined mission to invest for the future of Hong Kong and implemented this mission by way of our dual mandate, namely to bring financial return and future growth impetus for Hong Kong;
(ii) we picked high-growth, high impact investment themes across Hard and Core Technology, Biotechnology and Health Technology, and New Energy and Green Technology, as well as the relevant applications;
(iii) we deployed capital with professionalism, patience and passion.  Around 70% of our invested capital was put in companies in early and growth stages;
(iv) we adopted an “Investment +” approach to bridge our investee companies and investment partners with global capital and clientele.  More than 70% of our portfolio companies based in Hong Kong or Chinese Mainland have expanded or are expanding overseas; and
(v) these strategies are bearing early fruits.  Among other things, our investee companies have been growing fast – out of more than 250 projects we invested, 11 of our companies were already listed in Hong Kong, and more than 30 companies have submitted or planned to file IPO applications in Hong Kong in 2026.  Also, as of end 2025, we recorded a since-inception net IRR of 14% and a capital multiplier ratio of 1 to >8 for our investment portfolio, which evidenced the quality of our investments and velocity of capital inflow from other institutional investors into the capital market in Hong Kong.

These figures mean nothing if we do not have the long-term interest of Hong Kong in mind, guided by the principles of development and safety.  The HKIC was born and raised in Hong Kong, and we are part of the “Hong Kong Team”.

The word “LEAP” could shed some lights on the HKIC‘s unique approach to bring complementary value for the future development of Hong Kong. The word “LEAP” itself means “making significant progress”, which suits Hong Kong well because as I said earlier, we never stop re-inventing ourselves and progressing for the better.  Putting that in the HKIC’s context, “L” means “Lead Investor” – we are beyond an ordinary investor and step up to be the lead investor in selected cases; “E” refers to “Enabler” – we look beyond individual projects, focus on cross-cycle structural trends and create commercial and technological synergy among companies and partners.  One example is that we proactively marry AI and drug discovery in some projects to make drug discovery faster, better and cheaper; “A” means “Accelerator” – it is important to do the right things with the requisite speed; and “P” stands for “Pioneer” – we focus on staying ahead of the curve for the benefit of Hong Kong.

Future Technologies

With that in mind, let’s zoom back to the 3 key elements of the forum, namely future technologies, future scenarios and future talent.  On future technologies, we believe that good future technologies are those which serve people well with our “3As” principles i.e. applicable to people‘s needs, accessible by the society and affordable financially.

Take AI as an example.  We started off investing in large language models because they are going to be a game changer for how the world looks like. We gradually moved from there to downstream because real-life applications of technologies are the tangible touchpoints to bring benefits to people, support transformation of traditional businesses and create new impetus for growth. We also like the open-source paradigm which substantially lowers the costs and increases the speed and quality of innovations, helping younger generations and smaller companies particularly start-ups to grow, compete and prosper.

Future Scenarios

Future technologies need to go hand-in-hand with future scenarios. Among other things, we want to live in a sustainable and green world. So the HKIC invested in companies with a shared vision. Take sustainable aviation fuel as an example. We invested in EcoCeres that develops sustainable aviation fuel from biomass waste.  The HKIC has been working with the company and other stakeholders to develop partnerships covering airlines such as Cathay Pacific and financial institutions such as HSBC.  With the joint efforts of more and more stakeholders, we hope to bring good not only to Hong Kong, but also from Hong Kong to the world.

Future Talents

Lastly and most importantly, people.  The HKIC loves partnerships which bring together great wisdom with diversity.  So we are very pleased to meet our audience today, which comprises entrepreneurs and scientists across generations and sectors.  We are very focused on grooming next-generation talents. Among other things, we have recently announced our inaugural internship programme which is a full-time programme for 4 to 6 weeks. We keenly look for people who love and care about our home, Hong Kong, as much as we do, and who are willing to take up not only the opportunity but also the responsibility to contribute to the future of Hong Kong. We welcome candidates from different background and faculties because hard skills could always be trained if you work hard enough, but what defines how far a talent could go is the intrinsic value like curiosity, empathy, humility and willingness to embrace diversity, challenges and uncertainties.

Closing

To close, thank you very much once again for having me in the forum. The HKIC looks forward to joining hands with the audience to contribute supporting the future development of Hong Kong via investing in future technologies, broadening future scenarios and grooming future talent.  Wishing the forum a great success!