Make city more conducive for Hong Kong youth to take business risks, young entrepreneurs urge
They call for more recognition, higher pay for science, tech graduates to mitigate high cost of living and spur them to form start-ups
Hong Kong needs to create a sense of security for young people to take risks and start their own businesses, young local entrepreneurs said yesterday at a forum on youth innovation.
They said there should be more recognition and higher salaries for graduates from science- and technology-related majors, as well as less reliance on past pillar industries such as finance, service, property and tourism, which they said could no longer support a sustainable economic growth.
They also said that for every successful start-up, there would be 99 which failed, and that the high cost of living and, therefore, of failing in the city meant very few people dared to even try.
Rex Sham Pui-sum, 31, is co-founder and chief science officer of Hong Kong-based Insight Robotics, a company designing wildfire detecting robots and aerial surveying systems, and which now has businesses across mainland China, India, Indonesia and other countries.
He said the city should create an environment that allows science and technology graduates to “survive with dignity”.
