Hong Kong: A rising international hub where talent and innovation converge

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 10 September 2025 – Not only is Hong Kong a key player in the world’s leading innovation cluster, the city is also shooting up the charts as a global hub for top talent, according to the latest world rankings.

Hong Kong vaulted five places from ninth last year to secure fourth spot globally in the World Talent Ranking 2025, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on September 9, marking the city’s highest-ever ranking and ranking first in Asia.

For the second consecutive year, Hong Kong improved across all three talent competitiveness factors of the IMD survey. Hong Kong jumped eight places to 20th for “Appeal” and rose by one place for both “Readiness” and “Investment and Development” to third and 12th respectively.

The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), John Lee, said it was a clear testament to the HKSAR Government’s enhanced efforts in education and talent development.

“The World Talent Ranking recognises Hong Kong’s outstanding academic achievement, ranking us first in the indicator ‘Graduates in Sciences’.

“Hong Kong is the only city in the globe with as many as five universities in the world’s top 100. Our excellent institutions nurture world-class scientists and research talent in different disciplines,” Mr Lee said.

Leveraging that strength, Hong Kong is fast rising as an innovation and technology hub, he added.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster, located in Southern China, topped the world – for the first time – in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s annual Global Innovation Index (GII), announced just last week (September 1), moving ahead of Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan for the first time.

This reflects the high international recognition of the innovative capacity of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), signalling that Hong Kong is an ideal place for global I&T talent to develop their careers.

The GII ranking identifies local concentrations of world-class innovation activity using three key metrics: international patent filings via WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty, scientific publications and the number of venture capital deals.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster topped the ranking, filing 2 292 Patent Cooperation Treaty applications, publishing 3 775 scientific articles, and making 135 venture capital deals per one million inhabitants over the last five years.

Fast-tracking I&T development has been a policy priority of the HKSAR Government, which has rolled out a series of initiatives to ensure that technology, capital and talent reinforce one another, as well as expediting co-operation and collaboration with our GBA sister cities, so as to press ahead with the development of Hong Kong into an international I&T centre.

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