The Zhitong Finance App learned that on October 14, the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of Hong Kong, Professor Sun Dong, said at the Legislative Council meeting that Hong Kong's first five-year plan proposes to promote AI (artificial intelligence) as an important industry for the future development of Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government will actively promote the construction of computing power infrastructure to promote the healthy development of the AI and intelligent computing industry. The current overall computing power of Hong Kong has reached 5,000 trillion floating point operations (PFLOPS) per second, of which the Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Center (Supercomputing Center) accounts for 3000 PFLOPS. The current usage rate of supercomputing centers is over 90%, reflecting the strong demand for AI computing power services in the market.
Sun Dong explained that the Hong Kong government will actively improve the efficiency of computing power supply and resource utilization in the short, medium and long term. In the short term, the Hong Kong Government will make good use of existing facilities and artificial intelligence funding schemes to support the R&D, model training and application needs of local research institutions, universities and enterprises. The Artificial Intelligence Funding Program Committee will review the allocation and usage period of computing power resources in due course according to the actual needs of the funding project and the overall use of resources to improve the efficiency of resource utilization. Cyberport will also continue to review the service capabilities and future needs of supercomputing centers to explore viable solutions to enhance the supply of computing power.
In the medium term, construction of the Shaling Data Park has begun and will be developed into a regional advanced data center and data park for related industries. It is expected that the first phase of operation will begin in 2027 and be fully put into operation by 2032. At that time, it will provide 180,000 PFLOPS of computing power per second, greatly improving Hong Kong's computing power supply capacity.
In the long term, the Hong Kong Government is preparing to commission consultants to carry out a new round of computing power research to analyze Hong Kong's future computing power needs, optimize the operation and computing power layout of Hong Kong's data centers with “efficient computing power, stable electricity, and low-carbon transformation” as the core direction, and provide a planning basis for the long-term development of Hong Kong's intelligent computing industry.
Sun Dong added that in the long run, the Hong Kong government agreed that Hong Kong has advantages and potential to help develop activities such as “computing power trading” and “going overseas,” but Hong Kong's top priority right now is to strengthen the computing power infrastructure. From the perspective of the financial market, to establish a complete product ecosystem (including relevant trading, settlement and price discovery mechanisms), it is necessary to build on a mature underlying market foundation and perfect market ecology.
At this stage, the Hong Kong Government will focus on promoting the development of Hong Kong's intelligent computing industry and related supporting facilities, and consolidating the computing power supply base. At the same time, it will keep a close eye on the latest developments in the mainland and overseas intelligent computing industry. As for cross-border AI and computing power services such as “Go Overseas”, relevant developments must take into account factors such as data flow, network security, personal data protection, and related laws and regulations. The Hong Kong Government will work with the industry and relevant stakeholders to actively explore cooperation models conducive to the long-term development of Hong Kong's AI industry and further enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international AI and intelligent computing service hub.
Furthermore, Sun Dong said that when planning an intelligent computing industry, the Hong Kong government will simultaneously review water supply and electricity supply facilities. Industrial plans with high water consumption in the Northern Metropolitan Area (Beidu) are mainly concentrated in the areas of Xintian, Shaling and Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen. The Hong Kong Government will continue to encourage enterprises to use water-saving technology and make good use of different water sources, including proper distribution of drinking water and reclaimed water for cooling purposes in intelligent calculation of facility cooling systems during operation.
In terms of electricity, the two power companies are required to provide, operate and maintain sufficient electricity-related facilities and supply electricity to meet electricity demand in accordance with the Control Plan Agreement. China Electric Power Co., Ltd. has made construction and plans for the future development of Hong Kong's electricity supply needs, which is sufficient to match the overall development of the innovation and technology industry (including data centers).