"Greater Bay Area Industry Development Index 2026" Released: Three Major Measures to Improve Hong Kong's Intellectual Property Trading Ecosystem

The Hong Kong Foundation and Dah Sing Bank jointly released the "Greater Bay Area Industry Development Index 2026," continuing to track the business sentiment of six major industriesfinance, innovation and technology, culture and tourism, logistics, manufacturing, and real estateacross the 11 cities of the Greater Bay Area. This year's edition closely follows the wave of mainland enterprises going global, focusing on analyzing the two core competitiveness areas of intellectual property (IP) and testing, inspection, and certification (TIC), delving into the existing bottlenecks in Hong Kong's efforts to build a regional intellectual property trading center and proposing supporting solutions. I. Industry Background: Intangible Assets Have Become Core Assets for Going Global In 2025, the total value of global intangible assets surpassed US$97 trillion, hitting a historic high. As the core intangible asset of enterprises, IP has been incorporated into the national "15th Five-Year Plan," which explicitly sets out Hong Kong's strategic positioning as a regional intellectual property trading center. The report points out that only by connecting the entire value chain of IP application, valuation, financing, trading, and rights protection can Greater Bay Area enterprises rely on intellectual property to obtain financing returns and technology licensing, and transform innovation outcomes into credentials for overseas market access. TIC testing and certification, meanwhile, help enterprises meet overseas regulations. Together, these two services form the cornerstone of enterprises' international competitiveness. II. Three Major Pain Points in Hong Kong's IP Industry, with Financing and Trading Shortfalls Prominent The survey shows that Hong Kong enterprises face three major practical obstacles in developing their intellectual property: Difficulty in implementing IP pledge financing: 47% of surveyed Hong Kong enterprises are interested in using intellectual property as collateral for loans, but there are insufficient channels for realizing the value of IP collateral and incomplete risk control mechanisms, leaving banks relatively unwilling to lend and making it difficult to convert intangible assets into credit lines. Mismatch between supply and demand in industry-academia-research collaboration: University research outcomes are disconnected from industry needs, and there is a lack of cross-institutional technology transfer alliances and proactive matching mechanisms, leaving IP technology transaction volumes depressed over the long term. Significant shortage of interdisciplinary talent: 44% of enterprises cite the shortage of cross-disciplinary IP professionals as their primary development challenge. III. Three Major Policy Recommendations to Improve Hong Kong's IP Ecosystem Establish an IP recovery fund plus a loan risk-sharing mechanism: Drawing on the South Korean model, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, together with banks, should contribute funding to set up an IP recovery fund. In the event of enterprise default, the fund would acquire the pledged intellectual property on a proportional basis and then resell and license it. At the same time, drawing on Malaysia's experience, a risk-sharing mechanism should be built in which, after deducting recoveries from asset disposal, the government bears 50% of the remaining losses, substantially reducing banks' credit risk. Upgrade the one-stop IP trading platform and place it under HKEX operation: Upgrade the existing information display platform into a market-oriented platform integrating project screening, supply-demand matching, and transaction facilitation, benchmarking against the operating model of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Technology Innovation Center. The platform should centrally aggregate university research outcomes, connect with listed companies and industrial capital, complete confidential project matching and technology transactions, and revitalize research IP assets. Take multiple measures to address the IP talent shortfall: Expand the Intellectual Property Department's internship funding scheme and launch an IP talent transition program modeled on Singapore's; at the same time, update the talent list to continuously attract high-end overseas intellectual property professionals and close the talent gap. IV. Core Conclusions Hong Kong has the policy and locational advantages to build a regional intellectual property trading center, but it is currently stalled at three key links: financing and disposal, transaction facilitation, and talent reserves. Only by improving IP financial supporting measures, building a market-oriented trading platform, and expanding the professional talent pool can the entire intangible asset value chain be connected, better supporting Greater Bay Area innovation and technology enterprises in their overseas expansion.