Gov't To Invest In E-sports

The Government will invest in the rapidly growing e-sports industry.

At a press conference today to elaborate on initiatives in the 2018-19 Budget, Secretary for Innovation & Technology Nicholas Yang said $100 million will be spent to promote the development of e-sports.

Cyberport will develop its arcade into a local e-sports and digital entertainment node to support the industry.

Mr Yang expects the venue can soon start making changes to its arcade, as it has its own funding to start the groundwork quickly.

"As to the position of the arcade, the arcade has always had this public space. But it was more or less used for many purposes.

"So what we are doing right now is to decide that we are going to make e-sports promotion its main purpose. So it is more like a repositioning of what we want to do in the arcade, rather than probably what you expect, revamping or changing the arcade."

He added the Budget's investment in I&T does not focus only on infrastructure, but also on nurturing talent.

Mr Yang said one example is the $10 billion injection to support the establishment of two research clusters at the Science Park, one focusing on healthcare technologies and the other on artificial intelligence and robotics technologies.

"What we are trying to do is we are inviting some of the best in the other parts of the world and incentivise them to come to Hong Kong, and so-called jointly collaborate with our local universities, which are actually quite good in the various areas, to develop joint research, to develop projects that can commercialise.

"In doing so, we will be able to nurture a whole bunch of local talents."

Commissioner for Innovation & Technology Annie Choi said while developing research facilities for the two clusters, the Government is engaging with international scientific research firms to attract them to set up a presence in Hong Kong.

She added the Government hopes to launch the two clusters in the first half of 2019.