I
recently finished a trip to Hong Kong to attend the International ICT Expo as
part of a Canadian Trade Mission. The trip really opened my eyes to the focus
and resources that Hong Kong is putting behind becoming a big player in the
tech space.
Historically,
Hong Kong has been a prosperous shipping port due in part to its deep water
access for large vessels. It has also become a key financial center for the
region. Just as a reminder, control of Hong Kong reverted back to China (from
the UK) in 1997. However, the Chinese have wisely implemented a 50-year
transition period to ensure stability until the move is completed.
The
local government and residents alike lovingly refer to this period for Hong
Kong as “One Country with Two Systems." Of course, those two systems are
the Chinese legal system and the UK influenced international legal system used
in Hong Kong for the past several decades. It will be interesting to see the
amount of influence that China will exert on HK in the near future, but even
more interesting will be how much influence HK can exert and make changes in
Chinese system.
Fortunately,
I was sitting by the window as we prepared to land in Hong Kong. Seeing the beauty
of the outlying islands on approach reminded me why over seven million people
find this a great place to live. After the 14-hour flight from Vancouver, all I
could think about was getting to my hotel. When there, I fought the urge to
sleep, showered and headed to the Dim Sum restaurant right there in my hotel.
For someone like me from North America, it was a big deal to have a dim sum
place that close, but I soon found out that dim sum was on almost every corner
in Hong Kong’s Central district.
Hong
Kong has long been known as the gateway to China, but here are a few fun facts
about the state of technology in Hong Kong:
·
Hong
Kong has over 7.15 million inhabitants, and is one of the most densely
populated cities in the world.
·
Its
ICT sector has roughly 17,000 companies that generate CAD $197.4 billion in
revenue, representing 6.1% of Hong Kong’s GDP.
·
There
are 20,000 public Wi-Fi access points covering 426 square miles of the
metropolis.
·
The
Hong Kong government will spend nearly CAD $1 billion on IT expenditures during
2013-2014.
·
4G
LTE was rolled out by all five mobile network providers in 2012.
·
87%
of homes have broadband with an average speed of 60 Mbps, ranked as one of the
world’s highest in a recent report by Akamai Technologies. In some cases, the
speed reaches 1,000 Mbps, and provides inhabitants with access to over 700 TV
channels in this metropolitan market.
The
International ICT Exhibition was held in conjunction with a huge consumer
electronics show. It was Asia’s version of the annual CES show in Las Vegas.
The first day of the show was Sunday, and tens of thousands of Hong Kong’s
residents visited the Convention Center that day to see the latest gadgets.
There was a sea of young people that packed the aisles that day of the show. I even
saw young families with their kids making a Sunday afternoon excursion to
attend the show.
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