Hong Kong’s Paul Chan pushes for global tech start-up summit to be hosted in city

Financial Secretary Paul Chan sits down with organisers of South Summit during visit to Spain – the first leg of his European tour

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Hong Kong hopes to attract more high-level events to help it become a global tech hub. Photo: Eugene Lee

Published: 5:46pm, 23 Sep 2024Updated: 1:11am, 24 Sep 2024

Hong Kong’s finance chief has made a push to lure a Spanish-based global start-up summit to the city on the first leg of his European tour, with a lawmaker urging the government to offer more support to locally based, newly launched companies.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po led a group of Hong Kong tech start-ups to meet with the organisers of the South Summit, an event focused on bringing together global technology entrepreneurs and investors, while in Madrid on Sunday.

Chan is visiting Spain and will head to Britain later this week as part of efforts to bolster ties with the city’s trading partners in Europe.

In a meeting with Spain Startup president Maria Benjumea, Chan said Hong Kong would welcome the opportunity to host the event, noting it would attract start-ups and investors from mainland China, especially those from the Greater Bay Area, and the rest of Asia.

The bay area refers to Beijing’s ambitious plan to transform Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into an integrated hi-tech, economic powerhouse by 2035.

“Spain Startup has indicated that it is actively considering organising an Asian version of the South Summit,” the Financial Secretary’s Office said on Monday morning. “[Chan] will instruct relevant departments to follow up actively.”