The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin (HKETO Berlin) organised a reception and start-up workshop in Vienna, Austria, on March 18 (Vienna time). The events are trade and investment promotion initiative under the new Economic and Trade Express, as announced in the Chief Executive's 2025 Policy Address.
      
     About 200 guests from government, business and culture sectors attended the reception in Vienna co-organised by the HKETO Berlin, Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). In his welcome remarks, the Director of the HKETO Berlin, Mr Indiana Wong, highlighted Hong Kong's latest achievements in the area of innovation and technology (I&T).
      
     "Hong Kong is the only city in the world to host five universities in the top 100, and our research and innovation capabilities are expanding rapidly. Our commitment to promoting I&T is reflected in various I&T-related international rankings. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster was ranked first globally in the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2025. The number of start-ups in Hong Kong has also tripled, from about 1 600 start-ups a decade ago to around 5 200 last year."
      
     Earlier on the same day, InvestHK organised a start-up workshop in collaboration with the Global Incubator Network Austria to promote the initiatives of attracting and grooming start-ups in Hong Kong. Information about Hong Kong's vibrant start-up ecosystem and various incubation and acceleration programmes were provided to Austrian entrepreneurs and companies with an interest to develop in Hong Kong. Mr Wong also met with the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism of Austria and the Austrian Economic Chamber to exchange views on potential areas for further collaboration between Hong Kong and Austria.
      
     The HKETO Berlin also hosted a reception in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, on the afternoon of March 18 (Bratislava time), welcoming guests from political, government, business and cultural sectors attending the event.  Mr Wong also met with the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic to discuss matters of mutual interest, including potential collaboration in taxation, I&T, education, and other areas.

About HKETO Berlin
      
     The HKETO Berlin is the official representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in commercial relations and other economic and trade matters in Germany as well as Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Ends/Friday, March 20, 2026
Issued at HKT 21:03

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