Peter Wong

Opinion | Tech knowledge important but Hong Kong’s advantage is in soft skills

Scramble to keep up with emerging tech must not be at the price of the soft skills vital to the city’s connector role

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Jobseekers line up to enter the 2024 Hong Kong Top Talent Recruitment Fair at Shun Tak Centre in Sheung Wan on March 3. Hong Kong’s new bridging role will require a combination of curiosity and innovation. Photo: May Tse

Peter Wong

Published: 9:30am, 5 Jul 2024Updated: 11:26am, 5 Jul 2024

Hong Kong has repeatedly found itself in cycles of change and adaptation. Recent years have struck economic blows and the world we face looks quite different to what it was 10, or even five, years ago.

We will come through stronger but there needs to be a focus on talent development and soft skills, such as problem-solving, collaborative working, creativity and cultural intelligence, to enable the city’s connector role which will lead to our collective success.

Hong Kong has often been described as a bridge between the East and the West, including by myself. The city rightly has a hard-earned reputation for bringing together leading institutions within the highest levels of business support structures with an unrivalled understanding of and reach in China.

But this bridging role has changed. Firstly, the focus has shifted from purely East and West to include Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Secondly, the direction of travel has pivoted and there is more emphasis on proactively engaging with these international markets rather than purely enabling inbound flows.

The role that Hong Kong plays is not just as a springboard into and out of mainland China, providing the services, support and financing that companies require. Our city now needs to be a platform for discussion and market leadership, where ideas are formed and problems solved. We have much to offer in terms of experience and insight, and we need to go out with confidence about the value we can add.

To do this successfully, the city needs to be truly international, which I believe means having both an outward-looking perspective among businesses and diversity in the workplace. This goes beyond a statistical diversity and is more about having a mindset and approach that arises from being internationally aware.