Jake's View | Hong Kong’s Science Park may finally be at the point when it can put tax dollars behind good ideas
The truth with start-ups is there’s usually more money than good ideas, but that is a shortage that very few budding entrepreneur would dare to admit.
Another source familiar with [Science Park’s] vetting process said: “There is a feeling that the management is not doing things in the interest of science, but running it as a business, a piece of real estate. -- SCMP, December 4
Good. That is how it should be run. Only by treating the Science Park as a business, has it any hope of stimulating the New Technology ideas our government wants from it.
I recognise that this is contrary to the thinking of most people on the matter. The common notion is that to get technology start-ups, you have to put “seed money” into them to “pump prime” them into a state of “critical mass” for “take-off.” Pardon the mixed metaphors.
The accepted formula says this requires government help in the form of direct subsidy, cheap rents and technical assistance.
We shall let the record of the accepted formula speak for itself. The Science Park has been in existence for 16 years, and at present has about 650 corporate tenants in 21 buildings across a 33 hectare campus. This is a sizeable effort at promoting technology.
Now give me the name of a single big technology success spawned at Science Park. Believe me, if they had one, you would have never gotten their public relations trumpet out of your ears. Think! There has to be at least one, doesn’t there?
