Hong Kong should align regulations with mainland China to promote health technology in Greater Bay Area, experts say
- City should also reopen its border with rest of country and relax its talent scheme, veteran experts say
- Different sets of rules made it more difficult to receive green light for innovative products, according to Professor Samuel Au
Hong Kong’s new administration should align regulations with mainland China to better promote health technology in the Greater Bay Area, experts have said, adding the city should reopen its border with the rest of the country and relax its talent scheme.
Recalling his experience of trying to obtain approval for his surgical robots to be used in both jurisdictions, Samuel Au Kwok-wai, a professor at Chinese University (CUHK) and a director of InnoHK Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Centre, said on Thursday that different sets of rules had made it difficult to win approval for innovative products.
“The main issue in Hong Kong and the mainland is that [they are] not synced up and then we have to [send] both applications at the same time. Eventually, this is something to be solved in the long-term,” Au said on Thursday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Hong Kong 2022.
“For example, when we get … approval for certain devices [in the mainland], we may not be able to use [them] in Hong Kong directly.”
Au’s comments came after Beijing gave Hong Kong the nod to lead the development of a health technology hub in the Greater Bay Area, a project which aims to link Hong Kong and Macau with nine cities in Guangdong province to create an economic and business powerhouse. The move promises to unleash the sector’s multibillion-dollar potential.
