Top Swedish universities are eager to deepen collaboration with Hong Kong in areas such as life sciences, the city’s innovation and technology minister has told the South China Morning Post during a visit to the country to strengthen ties.

“What impressed us most during this trip to Sweden is the incredible enthusiasm of Swedish organisations, groups and individuals for cooperating with Hong Kong. This exceeded my expectations,” Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said on Tuesday, after visiting KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden.

“I have extended invitations to the three universities, hoping they will utilise our platforms such as InnoHK and the soon-to-be-established Life and Health Technology Research Institute. Many start-ups also hope to expand into the Chinese market while raising funds in Hong Kong to pursue global development.”

The trip marked Sun’s first official visit to Northern Europe since taking office, with a stop in Helsinki, Finland, scheduled after Sweden.

The purpose of the visit to Sweden was to strengthen collaboration in innovation and technology and to better understand the country’s experience in integrating education, technology and industry.

Sun said the discussions mainly focused on life sciences and biotechnology – key strengths of both Sweden and Hong Kong – as well as areas such as digitalisation and energy.

“They have a strong advantage in life sciences and biotechnology, so we had many discussions about collaboration in this area. Hong Kong is also quite strong in this field,” he said, adding that the city had identified life sciences as a key development area.