Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit: 2023 Panel on Hong Kong’s Innovation Potential and the Future of the Greater Bay Area

At the 2023 Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit, Neil Shen, Founding and Managing Partner of HSG, joined a high-level panel alongside executives from HSBC, OCBC, and the Bank of China to discuss the evolving role of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China’s innovation economy.

The conversation explored how Hong Kong’s deep integration with mainland cities is creating new dimensions of opportunity—particularly in advanced manufacturing, robotics, medical devices, and early-stage technology. Shen reflected on HSG’s experience launching initiatives such as InnoX Academy and supporting Hong Kong’s university talent, as well as the critical shift from Hong Kong acting as a trading hub to becoming a true system for R&D, management, and global expansion.

As the GBA emerges as a dynamic cluster on the world stage, Shen emphasized that the long-term competitiveness of the region will depend on talent, cross-border collaboration, and the ability to scale technological innovation into real-world impact.

A lightly edited transcript is included below.

Moderator: In recent years, China has changed its focus from high growth to high-quality growth. There are a number of policies that have been announced by the central government in recent years to affect that transition. We have a panel now that is going to discuss what those policies mean and where there may be opportunities for investment in this new environment.

Heading up our panel right now is going to be Ms. Helen Wong, who is the group chief executive from OCBC. She will be coming to the stage here. Thank you very much for joining us. She will be joined by the chairman of the Bank of China, Mr. Ge Haijiao, who will be coming right up behind her. Thank you very much. Mr. Noel Quinn is the group chief executive for HSBC. And finally, Neil Shen, who is the founding and managing partner at Sequoia China HongShan. Without any further ado, Helen, they’re all yours.

Helen Wong: Thank you. Good afternoon. I think we passed the noon time. Very happy to be back in Hong Kong as always. Thank you, Eddie and the team in HMA for inviting me. I look forward to this chat with two bankers and big investors who are all very prominent in this part of the world. It’s very fitting that the topic we are going to talk about is about mainland China GBA. I think everybody knows GBA. I won’t say “Greater Bay Area” anymore. And of course, Hong Kong. We want to talk about new dimensions. For those who don’t understand Chinese, Chairman Ge will be speaking in Chinese, so be ready when we are giving a question to Chairman Ge.

Just to reflect a little bit about this morning, this is the panel that talks about the geography. I think we talked about a lot of other subjects in the morning: crisis, we talked about investment, environment, and all of that. Just reflecting, I think Vice Premier Lee, this morning, was talking about what he expects of Hong Kong. I think the first one is about infrastructure and continuing to build so as to make sure that Hong Kong can influence and also innovate.

I think the second point is about Hong Kong keeping an international financial center status, and how we (Hong Kong) need to widen connection and be relevant. Then the third one is, have to be agile to changes in the markets and also changes in China. In fact, it’s very, very important that we link China to the rest of the world. That brings us to the point about China. I think we’re seeing that China is in a state of transformation, and we do want to see China moving from high growth to high-quality growth.

I think some of the dimensions people talk most about must be sustainability, plus a very, very important subject: technology innovation. On the ESG, on sustainability, we just had a panel. We have a panel of technology and finance coming up. In fact, Hong Kong, of course, has its own blueprints about technology development. Indeed, GBA is a place for a lot of innovation and technology. Without further ado, I want to start the questions for our panelists today. I’ll start with Chairman Ge.

Helen (through interpreter): Mr. Ge, the Chinese mainland is continuously advancing in innovative industries, which has drawn international attention. In your view, which particular sector deserves our focus?

This morning, Mr. Zheng mentioned that exports have improved significantly, and that innovation—especially the opportunities it brings—has created greater potential for the Bank of China.

Ge Haijiao (through interpreter): Thank you very much. We are very focused on the development of innovation and technology. on the mainland, the development in this area has been very rapid. In particular, we have achieved significant breakthroughs in key technologies, with more and more new and innovative forms of productivity being deployed and creating benefits at scale.

In 2022, the value-added output of what we call the “new industries, new types of business, and new business models” exceeded 21 trillion yuan, and its share in the GDP has risen to 17%. There are quite a few sectors that have caught our eye. For example, in next-generation information technologies, we have the AI industry, and the electronic information manufacturing sector has also seen rapid development. Another example is the green and low-carbon sector, like solar power and photovoltaic equipment.

We have a newly installed solar and wind capacity. This has sold by a lot. New energy vehicle production and sales also grow by 34% and 37%. The BOC has been putting a lot of efforts in this area. We are leading the way in this area. At the finance committee, this is an important area for development. I’m sure that the BOC will seize the opportunity there and liaise with our clients and take forward the development in this area. Thank you.

Helen: Thank you very much.

Noel at HSBC, of course, is deeply rooted in Hong Kong and has shown longstanding support for innovative companies in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Can you give us more color on how banks can support Hong Kong, the GBA and Mainland at large in developing this innovative economy, and one of the biggest challenges in doing so?

Noel Quinn: Thanks, Helen. Let me talk about the Greater Bay Area first, if I can. First of all, the one thing that’s very interesting about the Greater Bay Area is there is one joined up economic plan for all of the Greater Bay Area. There’s a Hong Kong plan surely, but there’s also a Guangdong plan, and they’re brought together. You see one economic plan being developed for that area, which is nearly 90 million people and around about $1.8 trillion of GDP.

Second thing, in that plan, there are tangible elements in the development of that plan around cross-border information sharing and cross-border people movement. Why is that important? Because in the Greater Bay Area, there are three principal pillars. There’s clearly the financial community here in Hong Kong. There’s the manufacturing community in Guangdong, but there’s also the R&D research university community as well in both areas, and particularly here in Hong Kong.

You put those two together, research, development, education, plus financials, plus manufacturing in one economic zone, the Greater Bay Area, you’ve got a powerful combination. That’s what I see as the raw material and a strong commitment from all of the people I speak to, to develop that as an economic zone. You will have seen in the policy address in the recent days that they desire to share information and share people movement. Now, already it’s possible for foreigners based here in Hong Kong to be able to have multi-entry visas not only into the Greater Bay Area or throughout the Greater Bay Area but into mainland China. That mobility is working.

If I look at what we, HSBC, have done, we started our journey clearly here in Hong Kong 158 years ago, but we started our journey in mainland China 157 years and 11 months ago. Within one month, we were in Shanghai. The Greater Bay Area, we’ve been expanding into the Guangdong region with corporate bankers, commercial bankers, and personal bankers for quite some time now. We certainly treat that as a huge opportunity for growth. We’re very focused as well on the technology sector that exists here and in the Greater Bay area more widely. We’ve created a special team of people to service the new economy across the Greater Bay Area. We’ve given them a special fund – a lending fund – to bank the emerging and early startup businesses. We’ve just topped that fund up as well recently because the appetite is great.

Let me give you an indication of activity levels post-COVID. The new-to-bank activity in retail banking in the Greater Bay Area is up around about 70%. The new-to-bank bank activity here in Hong Kong, from SME – smaller corporates – is up around about 90%. That’s post-COVID. If you look at the flow of wealth from mainland China into Hong Kong, just this year, we’re seeing growth in that activity of three to four times growth in activity. That’s pre-COVID level growth.

There’s a huge flow of wealth management activity coming into Hong Kong post the opening up of COVID. Our insurance business alone this year, today, I think is up around 40%. A good proportion of that is the flow of business from mainland China into Hong Kong. I would say from an activity level point of view, we are seeing a return to levels of activity in wealth management here in Hong Kong as a consequence of the integration with mainland China. In technology, I think there’s so much more to do in the new economy. It’s an untapped opportunity. You’ve got to go to the market with the distinct proposition.

We’re very pleased that earlier this year we were able to buy the Silicon Valley Bank business in the UK and recruit the Silicon Valley Bank team here in Hong Kong. We are now going even further into banking the new economy with full blooded support for venture debt, venture lending, and supporting the SMEs as they develop. That gives you a flavor of whether I think there’s an attractive opportunity in the Greater Bay Area. It’s a very simple answer: Yes.

Helen: Thank you, Noel. I think this is exciting, and the numbers you quoted post-COVID and what Hong Kong roses for Greater Bay Area, that’s very exciting.

We’ll pass along the question to Neil. Neil, can I ask you a question in two parts? The first one is, I do know that HongShan has always been actively supporting the development of INT in Hong Kong, and you set up the InnoX Academy. Do you see any particular area where Hong Kong may have an advantage or may have challenges in IT development? That’s the first part about Hong Kong. The second part is about, of course, Hong Kong is so closely linked and is in a deep part of GBA, and its INT is also very much linked to INT development in mainland China. Can you also share your take on the latest opportunities in the GBA and any sectors in particular?

Neil Shen: Thanks. Great to be here.

For the first question, I think when you look at the Hong Kong tech ecosystem back eight or nine years ago, clearly, it fell behind many cities around the world. So, what were the missing pieces? If you look at Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Shanghai, it’s not just capital—it’s more than that. There’s an ecosystem.

You could argue we should start from a long list of large companies, but you have to build small companies to first reach that stage. The second key part of that ecosystem is the presence of active investors. The third—and probably most important—are incubators. All of these are types of services that help young entrepreneurs grow.

To me, that was exactly the missing piece eight or nine years ago. But in recent years, I’ve seen real progress. Many players in Hong Kong—from government to the private sector—have put in a lot of effort. We’ve worked with several of them. For example, we partnered with a few local universities to launch Hong Kong X and InnoX Academy because we want PhD students in computer science or robotics at HKUST to get a feel for what entrepreneurship looks like and to help them understand what the commercial world is looking for. That connection is very important to help them grow into potential entrepreneurs—and that’s exactly what we’ve tried to support.

I also see many people, even this room, who have contributed to that progress.

So why is Hong Kong unique? What are great things that we have to offer? One, which have been touched upon, is our universities. We have four universities ranked in the global top 100. And they’re strong in critical areas—biotech, medtech, robotics, computer science, and so on. There’s a lot we can do to support the translation of IT and research into real-world applications and products. That’s something Hong Kong has already begun to witness. We’ve seen some interesting early-stage companies grow into decent-sized, important players.

Second, Hong Kong’s talent is highly international. We’re talking about senior team members with substantial work experience overseas—in the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. That background helps Hong Kong-based tech companies go global more easily.

Look at the top unicorns here—Futu, Airwallex, Klook, and Lalamove. Every one of those companies serves non-mainland, non-Hong Kong markets. Their teams are able to expand into places like the U.S. and Southeast Asia because they have early international exposure and understand how to do business in those markets. That’s a major differentiator.

Of course, some of those companies are also based in Beijing or Shanghai, and I have to say, many mainland Chinese companies are also becoming more international.

Now, coming to the second question, I want to borrow an old phrase we used 30 or 40 years ago: “前厂后店”—or “front shop, back factory.” That dynamic is still interesting. The “back factory”—in the GBA and other cities in Guangdong—is still humming along. But it’s changed.

Forty years ago, those factories focused on apparel and toys. Over the last few decades, they’ve gradually moved into consumer electronics. Today, they’re operating in fields like EVs, EV batteries, new energy, robotics, and medical devices. That’s a big shift.

So the question we have to ask is: what is Hong Kong’s role now?

Obviously, Hong Kong can’t just be a “shop” anymore—a middleman trader. Today, transactions happen directly between mainland cities and overseas markets. That old trading role has diminished.

Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong has taken on more of a service role—especially in finance. We serve companies in the GBA by helping them raise capital and connect with investors. That’s an important role, and one we’ve done well.

But looking ahead, I believe Hong Kong can play an even more important role: that of a system. What do I mean by “system”? I mean a place for management and R&D.

If Hong Kong can nurture talent that works with local universities to develop IP and technology—and then leverages the manufacturing capabilities of factories in GBA cities—that’s where you start to see powerful synergies. That’s the true “gateway” role that Hong Kong can play.

To make that work, we need to identify areas where the GBA has industrial strengths and where Hong Kong has the technological capabilities to complement them.

For example, take robotics and medical devices—two excellent cases. There’s a clear fit. We have the talent here to build strong R&D and management teams, and those teams can work with Guangdong to scale production. At the same time, Hong Kong can serve as the international launchpad for companies that originate or are headquartered in Guangdong. Thank you.

Helen: Thank you. This is very exciting. I think we talk about GBA, I always say that it’s always good to have people in Hong Kong who probably start with a prototype, and then you go and get the manufacturing done in Shenzhen because you have a lot of engineers and research capabilities there. Then, whatever you successfully manufacture in the PLD, Guangzhou is really the big trading center for you to sell the products around the country, and of course, export through Hong Kong, if needed. Then eventually, we can celebrate and relax in Macao. I think that’s the GBA to me in a way.

I’d like to turn back to Noel. We call you a foreign bank in mainland China. Probably you would say no. Of course, you already said that GBA is where the opportunity is. Do I call you [HSBC] a foreign bank? I don’t think so. With a long route in Hong Kong and indeed, a long history of operating in mainland China, what’s your strategy? Maybe I’m asking you for some trade secrets here to capture GBA opportunities.

Noel: Helen, you know all the trade secrets. We worked together for many years, so [laughs] what I know, you know.

I’ve been called many things in recent years, but I guess I’m neither local nor foreign. I believe at the core of what we do is international banking and internationalism. That’s at the core of what we do, and that’s helping entrepreneurs, helping businesses navigate the world. The world is complex to navigate at the moment, but that’s what we’ve been doing for 158 years: help entrepreneurs, businesses, trade with the world, and operate in the world.

That’s exactly what I think we can offer here to the Greater Bay Area, is help those companies grow, innovate, develop, manufacture, and then trade globally. That’s the complete picture. If I was to look at any label, it’s international banking, largely for entrepreneurs. A lot of people have asked me why did we buy Silicon Valley Bank in the UK. Why did we do that? The simple answer is, we’ve been a bank for entrepreneurs for 158 years. That’s what we started out doing, and that’s what we’ve been doing for 158 years. Those entrepreneurs then become PLCs, but they start as entrepreneurs.

I firmly believe that in the tech sector, there are two big themes in the world at the moment: one is innovation and the other is ESG. Being able to help develop solutions for the innovation economy and to help those innovation companies go global and expand their businesses is a huge opportunity. Then, helping the world globally find financing solutions for sustainability is another huge theme. I think both of those are relevant to here in Asia, and particularly in China. They’re both relevant themes and therefore represent huge opportunity.

Helen: Thank you, Noel. I think we’ll come back to these two big themes before we ask one more question to Chairman Ge which is more a technical question.

Helen (through interpreter): Mr. Ge, a key issue for handling GBA-related business is that it involves some different legal frameworks and regulatory requirements in Mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao. With the presence in all three locations, how has the POC been navigating across these different frameworks? This is something that I’m sure foreign banks would be really concerned about.

Ge Haijiao (through interpreter): Indeed, that’s a very good question. As we all know, the PRC, in fact, back 100 years ago, we were already there. We set up our business in Guangdong, in Hong Kong, and in Macao in 1914, 1917, and 1950, respectively. Now, we do have a team of staff who really has a wealth of experience behind them. In fact, a lot of the PRC banks in the region have been incorporated in a system for management.

We are well aware of all the legal frameworks and regulatory frameworks. In terms of compliance, we are doing pretty well, and we should also be promoting financial innovation. We should be launching more products that will satisfy the needs of clients. That something that we should continuously provide to the market. Thank you.

Helen: I haven’t seen any questions on my iPad, but may I just ask, is there any questions from the floor? We have a few minutes.

I want to invite the three speakers to answer just one last question, maybe a minute or 30 seconds each, because you just brought up sustainability and also technology in the new economy. If we’re saying that you have to think about how to bring your forces in mainland China and the GBA together, what is the one thing you immediately want to do?

Noel: To solve the sustainability challenge is going to require new technology. Today’s business models need to be reinvented, and many new technologies have to be brought to market. I think the innovation is only one step of the process, though. You then need to scale it, and you need to scale it fast. That requires the ability to build and deploy, and then finally, along the way, finance it. Although I talk about two themes, I actually think the themes are absolutely interconnected. To solve the sustainability challenge for today’s industrial base requires technological innovation.

Then once the innovation is done, the big challenge is scale. How do you get it there fast and faster than we’ve ever done in the history of the industrial revolution? We have to do it in 20 years, 30 years, or what might have been done historically in 100. I think China has a massive role to play in that. I think the Greater Bay Area, including Hong Kong, can be a massive facilitator of it as well.

Helen: Thank you. Neil, any thoughts on that?

Neil: Well, I think whatever the technology is, at the end of the day, when you look at the cluster here, in the GBA, we are competing against other clusters we are competing against other clusters—whether it’s the Yangtze Delta Area, Silicon Valley, New York, the UK, and so on. At the end of the day, it’s a competition for talent.

With Hong Kong integrated into the mainland cities of the GBA, what we hope to achieve is that you will see more talent attracted to this cluster. People can actually take advantage of all the resources across the different cities to develop companies or create great value—something they might not be able to do otherwise.

Again, I think the Hong Kong’s role needs to be shifted from the shop to service, and increasingly to a system. Thank you.

Helen: I totally agree. May I invite everyone to thank the three panel members? Thank you.