Innovation & Technology Commission Conference

I attended the consultation conference on the future funding model of Innovation & Technology Commission at the Central Government Office. Quite many people in the ICT sector attended this and spoke about their views. Although the seminar last for only 2 hours, a number of good and important idea and suggestion did come out.

However, one of my observation is that the gap between the industry and the academics is still quite large.

We need this sort of tri-partie (government, industry and academics) meeting to narrow the gap or mis-understanding.

One of the major directional or strategic change in the future funding schemes of Innovation & Technology Fund is the shift from a supply side to demand side.

I still remembered years ago when I organised seminars with the IT sector and invited the late Professor Tien to explain to us about the idea of mid-stream Research & Development. It took 2 or 3 years to implement to recommendations of Professor Tien's report. By now, we have 2 to 3 years of experience of triggering our more R&D through ITF.

The effectiveness of the ITF is crucial to our HK's technology development and IT development. Why? The government is facing severe budget deficit. Thanks to Professor Tien. HK SAR government appropriated 5 billion for Innovation & Technology Fund. We should treausre this ITF as an engine for growth.