Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin

From top left: The moderator of the Center for International Relations, Ms Agnieszka Ostrowska; President of the Digital Poland Foundation, Mr Piotr Mieczkowski; Lecturer of the Department of Sculpture at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongquing, Dr Ewa Maria Śmigielska; Opera Director, Mr Michal Znaniecki; Professor at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Director at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Dr Pascale Fung; Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin, Mr Bill Li; Head of Media Imaging Lab at the Department of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Dr Katarzyna Stanny; Veteran new media artist and Chair Professor of the School of Creative Media (City University of Hong Kong), Professor Jeffrey Shaw; and President of the Centre for International Relations, Dr Malgorzata Bonikowska.

With resilience and innovation into the future of art

HKETO Berlin teamed up with Germany’s leading business and financial newspaper Handelsblatt to create a digital content hub that includes latest highlights from Hong Kong in German language.

The hub made a start by covering the online dialogue session on February 5, 2021, co-organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Berlin and Brussels, in which the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, highlighted opportunities for the European business community in Hong Kong. Indeed, Hong Kong has the most important advantages for businesses: significant technology know-how thanks to five renowned universities, free movement of capital, a well-trained local workforce, and the same rights and tax benefits for any company operating in and from Hong Kong. You can find more in-depth information about Hong Kong as the preferred gateway for European companies in Asia in a separate article of this newsletter edition here.

Another article looked into Hong Kong’s vibrant innovation and technology sectors, which are at the forefront to develop and implement responses to the pandemic to help reduce the transmission rates of the COVID-19 virus. Due to the past experiences with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the local authorities acted quickly to join hands with high-tech companies to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Beyond topics related to the pandemic, the article finds out what Hong Kong has been doing to keep itself among the fastest-growing start-up ecosystems in the world and how innovation is boosted.

Handelsblatt gauges Hong Kong’s development into Asia’s hub for culture here. The city has always been one-of-a-kind. Its unique cultural and historical background has created a place where the new and old co-exist side by side. Major art infrastructure projects are under way or close to being completed. The M+, Hong Kong’s new visual cultural museum, will dramatically change the Asian art landscape in 2021. With all these new things emerging, have creative industries become drivers for Hong Kong’s economy?

View the digital hub and find out here.