In the Media

As competition in artificial intelligence (AI) development between the US and China heats up, DeepSeek R1 recently emerged as a serious contender. Challenging OpenAI with DeepSeek’s innovative algorithms and open-source strategy, the Chinese counterpart offers OpenAI’s GPT-4 performance at just 5% of the cost.

Startups are often drivers of innovation, job creation, and economic growth. As Hong Kong undergoes a reinvention of its innovation and technology development, there is a need to frame Hong Kong's startup ecosystem development from a qualitative firm-level microeconomic perspective. In chapter 5, Alberto Moel examines how the ecosystem structure relates to startup lifecycles and finds that the ecosystem is weakest at the intermediate "Valley of Death" stages – precisely where startups need the most support. Because technology entrepreneurship in Hong Kong remains poorly understood, existing research often develops in isolation from industry needs, making it difficult to tease out a product and market. Moreover, interactions and integration between business schools and early-stage R&D efforts are weak, and the current accelerator and incubator programs usually fail to provide tools for long-term growth.

随着科技和网络发展，拼车服务势必向自动化及智能化方向迈进。笔者透过研究不同定价模式和匹配机制，为网约车平台建议提升拼车盈利的策略。

Hong Kong is facing with a persistent fiscal deficit, with projections suggesting a staggering shortfall of HK$94.8 billion for the 2024–25 fiscal year. Financial reserves are expected to drop to HK$639.8 billion, largely due to a sluggish real estate market that has significantly reduced land sale revenues. Meanwhile, public spending continues to rise, particularly in healthcare, social welfare, and civil service salaries. To address these challenges, the government has turned to silver and green bonds as a solution for managing the funding issue and the deficit.

Besides retirement, another ongoing concern of Hong Kong people is the city’s housing affordability. For fourteen years in a row since 2010, Hong Kong has been ranked the least affordable housing market in the world. In chapter 4, Michael Wong, Jimmy Ho and Yulin Hong measure the distributional effects of Hong Kong's housing affordability crisis by decomposing population, price, and construction data. The study shows that large-scale public housing insulated a large fraction of households from rapidly rising private-sector housing costs between 2006 and 2016. However, as private-sector costs rose, public housing became increasingly misallocated, and the population of private renters dramatically increased. The prices and rents of smaller private-sector units disproportionately increased. The result was a significant increase in the price of small units, as well as a disproportionate burden borne by young renters, who increasingly lacked the ability to move up Hong Kong's housing ladder. The continuing lack of affordable housing is highly detrimental to Hong Kong's economy, which hampers the city’s ability to attract talent and investment.

Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, Hong Kong's role as a transshipment hub had been steadily declining. Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of HKU Business School and Director of the Asia Global Institute, shared his insights in a TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) interview and explained that the rapid development of mainland ports had led to increasing competition and mounting cost pressures. He said, “Mainland productivity was rising, and transportation costs were falling, for example, handling a container in Hong Kong cost around $2,000 and took three to five days, while the same process in cities like Shenzhen or Shanghai could be much cheaper” Prof. Tang added that, “In 2000, for every dollar coming to Hong Kong for re-export, we earned about fifty cents; today, that was only twenty cents.” This trend affecting not just traditional Chinese medicine exports but the overall export landscape, revealing the challenges Hong Kong faced in the global trade arena. He stressed the need for industries that once depended on transshipment trade to explore new avenues.

Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) is a compulsory saving scheme for the retirement of residents in Hong Kong. Over the past 25 years, the MPF has succeeded in encouraging household participation in securities markets and played a crucial role in improving financial inclusion in Hong Kong. However, it has faced ongoing criticisms for its low annualized rate of return. With the upcoming launch of the e-MPF platform to integrate disparate savings schemes into a single digital system, it presents a well-timed opportunity to drastically improve Hong Kong’s primary retirement savings system.

Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) returns have been a major concern for employees. Dr. Tai Ming-chu, Associate Professor of Finance at HKU’s Faculty of Business and Economics, highlighted the issues of "high fees and low returns" in the MPF system. She pointed out that the current MPF framework operates as a free market, but suggested that more active participation by the Hong Kong government could help members achieve better investment returns, a strategy adopted by regions such as Singapore.

The pandemic has severely impacted cinemas in Hong Kong, with 16 theatres closing their doors. The rapid rise of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ has made it easier for viewers to enjoy films at home, increasing pressure on cinemas. With ticket prices often exceeding over hundred dollar, streaming services offer a wealth of content for a similar cost, drawing many audiences away.