1、 New paradigm of industry: regional competition, no longer a competition of a single economy
In the past, when analyzing regional economies, we used to treat individual countries or regions as independent units and compare GDP growth rate, foreign investment inflows, labor costs, and manufacturing volume to find the next 'star economy'. But this analytical framework is becoming ineffective. The core carrier of future economic competitiveness is no longer a single sovereign region, but an economic network that crosses borders and complements each other's advantages.
The Johor Bahru Special Economic Zone (JS SEZ, Singapore+Johor, Malaysia) and the BBK Islands Cooperation Platform in Indonesia are typical examples: Singapore holds capital, financial resources, international networks, and professional services; The surrounding area has land, labor, energy, and industrial expansion space. Cross border division layout of industrial chain: research and development landing in Singapore, production in Johor, supply chain layout in Indonesia, relying on Singapore's logistics network to cover the entire Southeast Asian market.
The Fraser Institute's "World Economic Freedom 2026 Annual Report" shows that Hong Kong has been the world's freest economy for thirty consecutive years and ranks first in international trade freedom. Relying on the institutional advantages of "One Country, Two Systems", low tax system, and international business environment of free flow of funds and talents, Hong Kong naturally has the foundation to build a cross regional science and technology innovation network, which is similar to Singapore's hub positioning in Southeast Asia.
A truly successful economic network is not just about piecing together resource advantages from different regions, but also about ensuring that all participants receive reasonable benefits. The cooperation model should move away from the one-way exchange of elements of 'what you provide, what I get' and towards' what we create together, and how we share the value we create together '. If we only focus on factor trading, leaving the low-end links in the local area, and gathering high value-added income and intellectual property rights in the hub center, cooperation may be feasible in the short term, but it is difficult to sustain in the long term. The core of sustainable regional collaboration is to jointly expand the incremental cake, rather than dividing the existing cake.
2、 HK AITRI positioning: Based in Hong Kong, building a cross domain AI co creation network
The Hong Kong Institute for Artificial Intelligence Technology Development (HK AITRI) was founded by Dr. DAIS alumni from the School of Data Science at Lingnan University. It has an Industrial AI Application Laboratory and is affiliated with Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Technology Development Co., Ltd. The research institute adopts a project-based model, with cooperation mechanisms of intelligence gathering, openness, diversity, co creation, and win-win. Its mission is to empower the real economy with AI and drive sustainable development with technology.
Hong Kong's high-quality free business environment helps research institutes connect global AI academic resources, international capital, and overseas market windows; The mainland has rich physical industry scenarios, covering pharmaceuticals, packaging, electromechanical, new materials, industrial robots, and low-carbon computing power tracks, with mature engineering landing capabilities and profound industrial knowledge. The development strategy of the research institute is to practice the regional network logic of "value co creation and multi-party sharing", and avoid one-way buying and selling technology cooperation:
1. Joint research and development, rather than one-way technology output
The research institute does not directly sell prefabricated AI models to mainland enterprises, but collaborates with industry partners to explore industry pain points and jointly develop industry intelligent agents. Representative projects include MEDX-AI pharmaceutical compliance AI, packaging digital intelligent agent, SUS AI DC low-carbon computing power, passive temperature control AI monitoring, etc. The research institute outputs large-scale model architecture, intelligent agent technology, and an international perspective; Industry partners provide business scenarios, industry experience, and engineering implementation capabilities, collaborating with multiple parties to create industrial AI solutions that cannot be independently implemented by any single entity.
2. Multi party sharing of benefits and achievements
Collaboration is not just about charging a one-time technical service fee. The cost reduction and efficiency improvement dividends, new market opportunities, and intellectual property achievements brought by digital transformation will be shared by research institutes, industrial enterprises, Lingnan University and other university teams as agreed. Industry partners are no longer just "scene suppliers", they can master the digital capabilities that can be independently iterated and enjoy the long-term transformation dividends; The research institute relies on the massive industrial scenarios in mainland China to continuously refine its models, and then leverages Hong Kong's international platform to export mature industrial AI solutions, forming a two-way value cycle.
3. Hong Kong as a hub for co creation rather than a center for value absorption
Relying on Hong Kong's open advantage as the world's freest economy, HK AITRI has built a bridge connecting mainland industries, international capital, and overseas scientific research. The research institute is not simply a center for absorbing industrial value, but rather a hub for value co creation: exporting cutting-edge AI technology, international connections, legal and capital docking capabilities, linking with mainland physical industries to create incremental value, and ensuring that every cooperative participant benefits from collaboration.
3、 Summary and outlook
The practice of Southeast Asian cross-border economic networks has brought important insights: the long-term vitality of regional economies is rooted in cross-border collaboration and value sharing. Hong Kong has been ranked as the world's freest economy, nurturing a high-quality fertile ground for science and technology innovation for HK AITRI.
HK AITRI will continue to establish itself in Hong Kong, collaborate with mainland China, break down barriers between industry, academia, research, and geography, and rely on project-based cooperation to build a sustainable industrial AI ecosystem. Promote the upgrading of cooperation from simple technology supply and demand transactions to a cross regional AI industry network jointly built and incrementally shared by multiple parties, and implement the development vision of originating from Lingnan, based in Hong Kong, linking with the mainland, and empowering the real economy with AI.