Hong Kong’s very own creative digital community Cyberport announced this week its latest three-year strategic plan with further investment of HK$200 million to expand its current support for the ICT industry over the years 2014 to 2017. This is really great news for the whole Hong Kong startup community.
According to Cyberport, the past investment of HK$121 million into public mission in the first three-year plan has reaped great success. It has granted over 100 projects funding through the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund (CCMF) and admits over 200 start-ups under the Cyberport Incubation Programme.Altogether, Cyberport’s beneficiaries were able to secure over HK$93 million in funding from local and overseas investors since the initiation of the current three-year plan.
“With the Board’s consensus, we will increase our investment to HK$200 million to spearhead our public mission to drive Hong Kong’s ICT development and foster IT legends over the coming three years. The ICT industry, with burgeoning workforce of ICT professionals, is an increasingly important contributor to economic growth, both locally and on a global level. It is imperative that we continue our efforts to help talents and entrepreneurs in the ICT ecosystem.”said Paul Chow, Chairman of Cyberport.
Under the new three-year strategic plan, Cyberport will implement strategies to create a one-stop platform for ICT start-ups, as well as to engage a greater audience with the focus on nurturing ICT start-ups and entrepreneurs to foster local talents.
Some of the new moves include:
- increasing the total number of CCMF grants to 150 projects
- expanding the Incubation Programme to nurture 120 more incubatees
- initiating the “CCMF Partner Programme” and the “University Partnership Programme” to offer early-stage support to Hong Kong’s budding ICT talents
- more resources to provide even better world-class IT & T infrastructures and establish more clusters of excellence as well.
With more support from Cybeport and the implementation of our this new strategic plan, we are looking forward to seeing a better entrepreneurial environment and startup ecosystem of Hong Kong.
“We are thrilled to see the significant achievements of young talents and ICT start-ups under our first three-year plan,” said Herman Lam, CEO of Cyberport. “We look forward to the implementation of our new strategic plan, which will provide comprehensive support for the industry and all start-ups.Cyberport will continue to provide a one-stop platform to nurture talents and an infrastructure and environment conducive to entrepreneurial development.”
