The Zhitong Finance App learned that the International School of Management Development released the “2026 World Digital and Artificial Intelligence Ranking” on November 11. Among them, Hong Kong ranked 11th in the world out of 70 economies and 4th in Asia. Among the five factors considered in the ranking, Hong Kong ranked second in “workforce development”; fifth in “efficiency”; and tenth in “technology and infrastructure”. A Hong Kong government spokesman said that the relevant rankings confirm that Hong Kong is one of the most competitive economies in the world in terms of digital and artificial intelligence development.
The spokesperson said that the SAR government is following the direction proposed in the “First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030)” and is making every effort to promote Hong Kong's development as an international innovation and technology center. Among them, Hong Kong will optimize the innovation and technology development system, accelerate integration with national key science and technology strategies, and establish a new pattern of “three innovation and technology parks and five major R&D institutions”. In particular, the Hong Kong Park in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone will form upstream, middle and downstream collaborative development with Xintian Science and Technology City to jointly build a complete industrial ecosystem covering R&D, transformation, pilot testing and mass production.
Furthermore, Hong Kong will also promote new industrialization according to local conditions, establish a new industrial development system with Hong Kong characteristics, comprehensively promote the “artificial intelligence + (AI+)” initiative, enhance computing power infrastructure, and accelerate the application of AI by small and medium-sized enterprises.
The spokesperson added that in terms of upstream research, the government will consolidate and enhance the “dual base” advantage of InnoHK's innovative Hong Kong R&D platform and national key laboratory, and continue to promote the construction of the Hong Kong Microelectronics Research Institute, the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Institute, and the Life and Health Research Institute to further improve the layout of Hong Kong's public research system. In terms of industrial development, the development of the country's strategic emerging industries has been accelerated through preparations to build the first national manufacturing innovation center in Hong Kong. Among them, the Shaling Data Park has begun and is expected to be fully put into operation by 2032. At that time, it will provide 180,000 trillion floating point operations per second, equivalent to 36 times the current computing power of Hong Kong.
At the same time, the Government has also launched an artificial intelligence funding scheme to support the industry in using high-efficiency computing power to conduct cutting-edge research, and is optimizing the digital transformation support pilot scheme to fund more small and medium-sized enterprises to apply AI and cybersecurity solutions in the form of matchmaking. At present, “Smart and Convenient” has achieved “One Network Access” for government services. It is used by more than 220,000 daily users, and receives more than 1,400 online services and government electronic forms from the government, public and private institutions.