Young HK talent visiting Zhejiang

Young entrepreneurs from Hong Kong who have made their dreams come true in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, invited young people from their home city to follow in their footsteps on Wednesday.

"Starting a business on the mainland can be much easier than in Hong Kong. The stereotype of the red-tape hassles in starting a mainland business is outdated and no longer true," said Chow Kwok-fai, who founded Incool Medical Technology. The company moved its business from Hong Kong to Hangzhou in 2016. Chow's family moved, too.

The invitation was extended during a two-hour conversation on entrepreneurship between young people who live in Hangzhou, one of the mainland's key centers of innovation and technology, and hundreds of youths from the special administrative region on a visit to the province.

The entrepreneurs spoke to the group at the Zhejiang Overseas High-level Talent Innovation Park, which is a scientific and technological park to attract talent and encourage entrepreneurship in Hangzhou.

The youths on the six-day visit, who are divided up among 11 cities in Zhejiang, are the largest and youngest group from Hong Kong to participate in the program. Their average age of the delegation of 2,000 is less than 26. While this type of trip has taken place for years, this is the third year it has been sponsored by the New Home Association NGO of Hong Kong.

It is designed to foster a better understanding of the country and to heed the call of President Xi Jinping to strengthen communication between youths of Hong Kong and the mainland.

Yip Cheuk-man, head of Cathay Dragon airline's Hangzhou branch, called on the group to join the highly innovative and resourceful environment in mainland cities like Hangzhou.

Yip arrived in Hangzhou in 2016. He had visited Ningbo, another Zhejiang city, seven years ago and was surprised to discover that many mainland cities had surpassed Hong Kong in innovation and technology. He said the mainland "has abundant opportunities for them to realize innovative ideas".

Hangzhou's culture of embracing technology gives the city an edge in retaining talent, young entrepreneurs said. Chow said that while he has been in Hangzhou for only a year, he wouldn't want to leave. He said that in the cashless-friendly city, he had spent only 8 yuan ($1.19) in cash in July.

Delegation members staying in Hangzhou, birthplace of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and many other innovative enterprises, made visits on Wednesday to the research and development center of Geely Automobile and the headquarters of Hikvision Digital Technology, a surveillance and monitoring devices supplier.

The delegation arrived on Sunday on a high-speed train from Shenzhen. Hong Kong is expected to be connected into the nation's highspeed train networks in the third quarter of 2018.

stushadow@chinadailyhk.com