Hong Kong Science Park celebrates 25 years of innovation and growth
As Hong Kong’s premier science and technology ecosystem marks its silver jubilee, PostMag revisits the legacy of connection and invention that sustained 25 years of innovation, and meets the leaders driving the vision for the institution’s next chapter
A particular kind of energy settles over Hong Kong Science Park on a weekday morning: researchers, deep in conversation, cross footbridges with laptop bags slung over shoulders; engineers transport prototypes between buildings, hunting for the next set of testing conditions; the air is rich with the buzz and hum of a community that has, over a quarter of a century, grown from reclaimed land at Pak Shek Kok into the largest start-up incubation platform in the city.
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) kick-starts its silver-jubilee celebrations this year, and that industrious atmosphere is precisely what its new chairman, Cordelia Chung, wants people to understand about what has been built here. Not a laboratory, not a gadget: an ecosystem driving growth – one she intends to carry into its next phase.
Chung took up the chairmanship on July 1, arriving with a résumé that speaks of more than two decades inside one of the largest technology companies in the world. At IBM, she held senior leadership roles and steered the mainland China, Hong Kong and Asean markets, served as the vice-president and general counsel for Asia-Pacific, and was appointed to the IBM chairman and CEO’s Global Strategy Council as its first Asian female executive, contributing to worldwide direction setting across more than 140 countries. Her international background – having lived and worked in Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong – brings a broader outlook.
She is no stranger to HKSTP, either, as her tenure on the board of directors, from 2017 to 2023, will show. Among Chung’s long list of achievements, receiving the Medal of Honour from the Hong Kong government in 2024, for her role in propelling the city’s innovation and technology (I&T) development, is arguably one of the most meaningful.
It is that blend of corporate governance and lived experience in a future-focused sector that shapes Chung’s vision for HKSTP, along with her sense of service to the community, instilled early on during her formative years at a convent school, which guides her intentionality to empower and enable talents.
China’s 15th five-year plan outlined high hopes for the continued advancement of Hong Kong’s I&T industry as an international hub for science and technology, and for it to deliver results. But Chung does not reach for a single headline figure to convince the audience of her ambition, instead framing her philosophy around four qualities: breadth, depth, height and strength.
“Hong Kong’s economy has relied heavily on finance and service industries, but facing global challenges, industrial transformation is now imperative. What we’re currently looking for is the breadth of I&T. We want to fully integrate I&T into traditional industries in order to expand Hong Kong’s industrial base,” she says, explaining that expanding talent development, nurturing that passion early and planting the seeds will provide a clear pathway for the next generation.
