On 30 June 2004, the Innovation and Technology Commission released a consultation paper on the Government's New Strategy of Innovation and Technology Development The new strategy aims to improve the relevance of applied research and development (R&D) to the needs of the industry and to strengthen the coordination among different elements of the innovation and technology programme. The key initiatives of the new strategy are to identify technology focus areas where Hong Kong has competitive edges and has the potential for meeting market needs, as well as to set up R&D centres to drive and coordinate applied R&D efforts, facilitate technology transfer to the relevant industries and promote commercialization of R&D results in the selected areas.

We received a total of 167 written submissions in response to the consultation paper. Taking into account the feedback received, we plan to take forward the strategy through the following initiatives:

• set up R&D centres under four technology areas, namely automotive parts and accessory systems, logistics and supply chain management enabling technologies, textile and clothing, and nanotechnology and advanced materials;

• invite the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute to subsume R&D under five technology areas, namely communications technologies, consumer electronics, integrated circuit design, opto-electronics, and Chinese medicine, as part of its development plan; and

• R&D in other areas will be supported on project basis through the ITSP of the Innovation and Technology Fund.

A report summarizing the outcome of the public consultation and setting out the implementation plan to take forward the new strategy is provided here.