Fintech Helps Boost Hong Kong’s Tech Hub Ranking

Financial technology, alongside other developments, helped boost Hong Kong’s ranking as a tech innovation hub to tenth place worldwide in the latest KPMG survey.

Hong Kong’s ranking improved from 12th place last year, according to the KPMG report which surveyed 800 global leaders from the tech industry from 12 countries, including 110 respondents from China. In addition to fintech, the outlook is bright for development in artificial intelligence, biotech, and smart cities especially due to opportunities to leverage synergies from closer integration with the mainland such as the Greater Bay Area strategy.

The Hong Kong government is supporting and promoting an entrepreneur ecosystem, as well as leveraging the city’s mature international financial system and advanced logistics sector to drive a real difference, said Irene Chu, KPMG China’s partner and head of new economy & life sciences in Hong Kong, in a release.

Although China is home to four top 20 tech hubs including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the country’s overall rating dropped. The country was ranked second by 13 percent of respondents, down from 17 percent last year and tied with India.

In contrast, the 28 percent of respondents placed the U.S. in the top rank, up from 23 percent last year. And in order for China to close this gap moving forward, it must now spend more resources on its own domestic innovation ecosystem due to the current American policy stance on technology and intellectual property.