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The chief executive’s 2025 policy address made clear that the Northern Metropolis is not just a land initiative; it’s being positioned as a central platform for industry and innovation-led growth. Innovation secretary Sun Dong has stressed that the government is committed to developing an international innovation and tech ecosystem in the Northern Metropolis. This reinforces the broader vision of “finance in the south and innovation in the north”. If Hong Kong wants to turn promising start-ups into globally competitive unicorns, it must move beyond rhetoric to focus more on industrial ecology.

That means attracting anchor enterprises. Unicorns rarely emerge in isolation. They grow where start-ups can work with major customers, hire experienced engineers and managers and plug into supply chains, data infrastructure and patient capital. This is why recent debate around the Northern Metropolis has stressed the need to relax rigid land-use approval so strategic firms can be brought in faster and on terms aligned with long-term industrial value rather than short-term land revenue.

Hong Kong already has some foundations to build on. The city’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem is reportedly home to nine companies. The Hong Kong Investment Corporation has also signalled the right direction by investing in local AI unicorn SmartMore, with its chief executive stressing its drive to help cultivate leading enterprises. These signs are encouraging, but still too scattered to create the density that a true innovation cluster requires.

The Northern Metropolis should, therefore, be used to connect four elements: frontier research, anchor firms, growth capital and scale-up space. The emerging innovation corridor in the north offers a practical starting point. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park holds potential as a cradle, with its incubation programme supporting 108 start-ups. However, the government cannot simply pick winners, but rather build conditions in which winners can grow.

For international investors, the real test of the Northern Metropolis is whether Hong Kong can convert its research strengths and financial depth into a genuine industrial ecosystem. If it can attract a handful of world-class firms in AI, data infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, local start-ups will have a far better chance of becoming Hong Kong’s next unicorns. If not, the city risks building a new district with the label of “technology”, without the economic transformation it promises.