Experience center opens in HK to nurture startups

Platform based on belief in sharing economy, Deng Yanzi reports.

IngDan, a Shenzhen-based innovation platform for Internet-of-Things manufacturing, has opened its first Experience Center in Hong Kong, which is expected to help boost local startups and innovation development, industry insiders said.

The IngDan Experience Center, which opened in Cyberport on Saturday, plans to showcase the latest hardware innovations to the public.

It will also connect Hong Kong innovators with the enormous manufacturing base in China through the IngDan network, helping them to find suppliers to hatch their ideas into products.

The launch is timely as in the Chinese government's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Premier Li Keqiang stressed entrepreneurship and innovation as major driving forces for further economic development in China, in line with the country's urgent need for economic restructuring.

At the opening ceremony, Jeffrey Kang, CEO of IngDan and its parent company Cogobuy Group, has announced a $50 million fund to support local innovators and entrepreneurs in Hong Kong exclusively.

The Hong Kong government is also catching up with its support for innovation and technology in the city, as the city seeks new economic engines beyond its dominant economic sectors of finance and real estate.

According to Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's Budget Speech earlier this year, the government will set up a HK$2 billion Innovation and Technology Venture Fund to co-invest with private venture capitals in local startups, while it will also support research and development and the commercialization of research results.

Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, said at the center opening that even though Hong Kong currently lags behind in promoting innovation, the tide is changing rapidly.

"Recently, the chief executive's Policy Address and financial secretary's Budget have demonstrated a very strong determination on the part of the government to promote innovation and technology," she said.

She called for closer collaboration between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong in nurturing startups.

"China's 13th Five-Year plan also highlighted the importance of working more closely with Hong Kong. We all have to seize the opportunities to promote innovation and technology in Hong Kong.

"We need to work together with one heart and one mind," she said. IngDan's presence in Hong Kong is expected to strengthen ties between Hong Kong innovators and the manufacturing base in the Chinese mainland, insiders said.

"IngDan, as a platform, provides innovators and researchers with a point of entrance to the companies and the market in China," said Professor Wu Jingshen from the Center for Engineering Materials and Reliability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

According to Wu, his doctorate students are commercializing their research results in products on the market through the IngDan platform.

IngDan is a subsidiary of Cogobuy, an e-commerce platform for corporate procurement of electronic components in China.

As a step in the company's roadmap for globalization, the Hong Kong Experience Center is IngDan's first overseas location after Beijing and Shenzhen. "We'll build an international bond to connect the world's innovative minds with the manufacturing base in China," said Kang, stressing that the platform will help Hong Kong nurture global companies.

"We hope to help young innovators and entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. In the past, they tended to focus on the local market; but starting from now, through this international platform, they can aim at the world from the first day they set up their companies."

"I am a believer in the sharing economy and it is our job at IngDan to use an Internet platform to link global innovators with China's manufacturing base, open and available to everyone. We want to become the Uber of the manufacturing industry," he said.

Contact the writer at iris@chinadailyhk.com

Mini robots are displayed at the IngDan Experience Center in Hong Kong. The company serves as a bridge between innovators and the manufacturing market in China.Photos Provided To China Dail

(China Daily 03/22/2016 page15)