Stepping stone into Asia

Cyberport campus in Hong Kong. Photo / Wikimedia Commons

Mark Clift wants Kiwi digital companies to use Hong Kong's Cyberport campus as a "stepping point" partly into China but also into Asia.

The Hong Kong Government's HK$15.8 billion landmark information technology project stitched up collaboration deals with the Wellington City Council, New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation, Kapiti cloud computing company InterGrid and WelTec.

Pingar also joined the ranks of Cyberport residents establishing an office there and using it to develop its penetration into the Chinese market via its two Chinese language portals.

Clift, who is Cyberport's chief operating officer, says the complex has fibre going direct into every office, meeting room and apartment.

"We run a 10 gigabit-per-second network around the campus. The companies coming into here get free connections to that network and free shared bandwidth to the internet."

Clift says Cyberport also has its own data centre on site. Companies can park their server in the centre and fibre-direct it to their office - "it's a very easy setup for them." They also get fixed IP addresses, i-phones and Wifi."

The ultra-modern facility has proved a hit with NZ companies that enjoy its world class infrastructure and the opportunity to rub shoulders with major global tenants including Microsoft and IBM. "It's designed to be a low rise, low density, purpose built campus which is attractive to digital companies," says Clift.

Cyberport seeks three types of companies to join its campus, which looks out over the South China Sea: Hong Kong digital companies seeking to become world-class; North American, European, Scandinavian or New Zealand companies seeking to access Asia and the China market via Hong Kong; and increasingly Mainland China companies looking to step out of the mainland via Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Cyberport is wholly owned by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It wants to establish itself as a leading ICT hub in the Asia-Pacific region and has a HK$100 million budget to spend funding the ICT industry over a three-year period.

The aim is to facilitate the growth of the industry by nurturing ICT industry start-ups and entrepreneurs to foster local talent in Hong Kong, driving collaboration to pool resources and create business opportunities, as well as narrowing the digital divide in the community through strategic initiatives and partnerships.