The StartmeupHK Venture Forum attracted more than 900 participants today who had the opportunity to listen to renowned speakers talk about entrepreneurship and innovation.
In his opening speech, Financial Secretary John Tsang noted that Hong Kong's start-up scene has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, with now more than 1,500 start-ups in the city, a 50% increase compared to 2014, adding that the ventures are led by entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, universities and Government.
Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Gregory So thanked all the speakers for sharing their success stories and speaking about entrepreneurship and innovation in Hong Kong and around the world.
Tesla Motors CEO and Product Designer Elon Musk told the forum that Hong Kong will serve as a model for high-density cities around the world to transform to a sustainable transport future.
"We are trying to work closely with the Hong Kong Government and to take lessons learned and see what we can do and then to copy that to other cities around the world," Mr Musk added.
Other speakers included Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund Executive Director Cindy Chow, and founders such as Eric Gnock Fah from Klook, Paul Tomes from PassKit, Kevin Chan from Insight Robotics and Fritz Demopoulos from Queen's Road Capital.
Synergia One Group's Fred Mouawad, Mitchell Presnick from Super 8 Hotels and Grace Xia from Tencent also spoke at the forum.
Director-General of Investment Promotion Simon Galpin said that judging from the immense response, he believed that the forum has drawn a lot of attention to Hong Kong as one of the fastest growing start-up hubs in the world.
The forum was part of the week-long StartmeupHK Festival hosted by InvestHK from January 23 and 30 aimed at promoting the city as one of the fastest growing start-up hubs in the world. It was also broadcast live at www.startmeup.hk/en/webcast/.
The festival also features a series of thematic conferences and pitching events covering areas such as the consumer Internet of Things, financial technology, health technology and data analytics.
