According to the Zhitong Finance APP, on January 15th, Zhang Manli, the Acting Secretary for Innovation and Technology of Hong Kong, responded in writing to a question from Legislative Council member Wu Yongjia during a meeting, stating that the New Industrial Acceleration Program (Acceleration Program) will be launched in mid-September 2024, with the first application expected to be received in mid-November 2024. As of December 31, 2024, the Acceleration Program has received a total of six applications, covering new intelligent manufacturing facilities proposed by the applying companies in areas including life and health technology, advanced manufacturing, and new energy technology. The total preliminary budget for the projects proposed by these six companies under the Acceleration Program is approximately HKD 3 billion.

The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) is currently reviewing the six applications and has requested the applying companies to clarify and submit supplementary documents and information. The actual processing time for each application will depend on various factors, such as the complexity of the case and whether the information submitted by the applying companies is complete and clear. For each application project, the total project cost must be at least HKD 300 million, with companies required to invest no less than HKD 200 million, while the government’s funding cap is one-third of the total expenditure of the approved project or HKD 200 million, whichever is lower.

Zhang Manli stated that to encourage companies participating in the Acceleration Program to conduct research and development (R&D) in Hong Kong or expand their R&D scale, the ITC has added a new category to the Talent Pool under the R&D Talent Scheme specifically for the Acceleration Program. In addition to employing four research talents from the existing Talent Pool, companies with approved projects under the Acceleration Program can additionally hire 36 research talents in a 1 (government): 1 (company) matching format, with the government covering up to half of the monthly allowance cap from the existing Talent Pool, for a total employment period of three years.

Furthermore, a separate category under the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (Acceleration Program) has been established for companies participating in the Acceleration Program, which provides quotas to funded companies to bring in technical personnel to assist them in acquiring, installing, and operating the necessary machinery and equipment in Hong Kong. Each company can receive up to five quotas