Hong Kong start-up festival strives to draw 20,000 attendees amid city’s push to be a tech hub

The StartmeupHK Festival, an annual event in Hong Kong that showcases young technology companies, is aiming to attract over 20,000 attendees this year. This will be the first fully physical event since the Covid-19 pandemic. The festival is scheduled to take place from November 8 to 17, with a variety of topics being covered, including health and environmental technologies, Web3, and property tech. The festival is expected to feature over 500 speakers and attract participants from over 100 countries. This year marks the first full return to offline events for StartmeupHK in three years, due to the global health emergency that disrupted international travel. Last year's festival, which included both online and offline events, attracted over 20,000 attendees. The StartmeupHK Festival is seen as an indicator of the sentiment in the Hong Kong tech industry, which is expected to receive a boost from local government policies. Last October, Hong Kong's leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, announced several initiatives to develop the financial hub into a major international innovation and technology centre. This followed an endorsement from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who envisions Hong Kong as China's international innovation and technology hub. The Hong Kong government has laid out a blueprint to increase the number of start-ups in the city from 3,755 in 2021 to around 7,000 in 2032. It also aims to increase the number of locally-based unicorns, privately-held companies valued at over US$1 billion, from 12 to 30 over the same period. The city also plans to strengthen its tech workforce by increasing the number of industry professionals from 45,310 to no fewer than 100,000. Additionally, Hong Kong is setting up a new government investment company similar to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek. The Hong Kong Investment Corporation will manage four funds totalling HK$62 billion (US$8 billion), including a HK$30 billion Co-Investment Fund for investing in businesses that it wants to bring to Hong Kong. The company recently named its first CEO, Clara Chan Ka-chai, who was previously an executive director of monetary management at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.