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Audrey Parwani

Industry interest in the Innovation Festival - to be held at the end of this month - has increased this year, attracting more than double the sponsorship of last year's event, according to the Innovation and Technology Commission.

Assistant Commissioner  Yeung Tak-keung  said the annual festival was operating on a HK$10 million budget this year, HK$800,000 of which had come from sponsors.

'This is more than double that of last year,' Mr Yeung said. 'Participants of previous festivals have given positive feedback that the exhibition has helped to introduce technology to the public.'

The festival, which runs for a fortnight, opens  on August 31 at the APM mall in Kwun Tong with the theme 'Let's Innovate ... For a New Era'. It will then move to Cityplaza in Taikoo Shing and Tuen Mun Town Plaza.

At this year's festival, the commission hopes to introduce technology to the public in a more interactive way, through  seminars and classes.

Organisers also hope to break two world records:   the most students simultaneously building a Lego robot, and  the most Lego robots taking part in a tug of war.

The Hong Kong qualifying rounds of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge   and the World Robot Olympiad  will be held at the festival.

Since 2005, the event had been targeting the younger generation and this year was expected to draw a crowd of at least 50,000 people, Mr Yeung said.

Looking to widen the net of small and medium-sized businesses to benefit from its funding, the commission, which aims to spearhead Hong Kong's drive to become a world-class, knowledge-based economy, last month sought to increase the size of the companies that could be assisted.

'Funding under [the Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Programme, or Serap]  was previously confined to companies employing 20 staff or less,' Mr Yeung said. 'But last month, we submitted [a proposal] to the Legislative Council's commerce and technology panel to increase the number of staff from 20 to 100 or less.'



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Innovation Festival piques interest as number of sponsors doubles