Written by Nina Fowler

NEW Zealand companies are hot for Hong Kong right now – and the love affair runs both ways. Cyberport, the Hong Kong government’s HK$15.8 billion (NZ$2.7b) landmark information technology project, has signed a series of collaboration deals with the Wellington City Council, New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation, Kapiti cloud computing company InterGrid and, most recently, WelTec.

This latest deal will give WelTec staff and students access to Cyberport’s weighty resources. In exchange, Cyberport – which aims to become an international ICT hub – hopes to increase its chances of coming across the “next big thing” in the flourishing digital entertainment sector.

Dr David Chung is the head of information technology operations (ITO) at Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company. Picking up the phone with a cheery “kia ora”, he explains that the company has targeted a relationship with Wellington for several years. Cyberport has been working to identify entrepreneurial hotspots around the world and, he says, “we find entrepreneurs and creativity, definitely, in Wellington”.

LOCATED on 24 hectares in the south of Hong Kong Island, the Cyberport complex includes four office buildings, a luxury hotel, a retail entertainment complex and a deluxe residential development. The vision: an ICT hub, home to a strategic cluster of commercial tenants, with project funding boosted by the ancillary property development. To this end, Cyberport provides digital media and wireless development centres, top-notch broadband facilities and an on-site ICT training institute.

Most importantly, Cyberport runs a digital entertainment incubation and training programme (IncuTrain) to provide financial, technical and business support to start-up companies. Successful alumni include social network game developer Emagist and PlayMotion Limited, a start-up digital publishing company recently acquired by global printing company Leo Paper Group.

Over 100 companies work at Cyberport at any given time, ranging from start-ups and incubatees (currently numbering about 60) to giants like Microsoft and FedEx.

Cyberport’s office occupancy rate has grown significantly over the last four or five years and is now considered stable, at a range of between 80 and 90 per cent.

Some of the profits generated by the Cyberport project are “poured back” into the community, Dr Chung explains. For example, in December last year, Cyberport announced spending of HK$100m (NZ$17.4m) over the next three years to help develop the ICT sector in Hong Kong.

Looking beyond Hong Kong, Dr Chung believes that there is potential for Cyberport to facilitate an international network for creative ICT companies. Thanks in large part to the reputation of Weta Digital, New Zealand is considered a key international relationship. Mainland China is also a priority and Cyberport is working to establish a “collaboration centre” from its office in Shanghai.

“We want to create a so-called hub and we can help companies grow into the China market, by leveraging our partner in Shanghai,” Dr Chung says. “This is like a reciprocal network. For example, in China, we are helping some of the Chinese companies come out of China, leveraging on our Hong Kong facilities.”

In December last year, during a delegation by WelTec staff to Hong Kong, WelTec and Cyberport signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the field of creative technologies. As a starting point, WelTec will run a series of short courses in Hong Kong in June. Future collaboration is envisioned to include staff and student exchanges and joint development of training and facilities. WelTec is also working to develop relationships with Cyberport incubatee and tenant companies, starting with web content innovator SmoothWeb and 3D motion capture company XD Productions.

TERIULemon, head of WelTec’s school of creative technologies, acknowledges the role played by the “Weta empire” in building Wellington’s reputation as a centre for digital creativity and innovation. “Park Road Post and Weta Digital have established a very strong name here and it’s not only drawing people like James Cameron and other directors and the expertise; it’s created a huge interest around the world, including Cyberport in Hong Kong.”

Cyberport has “amazing” facilities and access to top technical expertise but, in Lemon’s personal opinion, the project is still looking for the kind of creativity displayed by people like Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor. “They’re still looking for what it is that we do here that is so unique . . . what is so unique about such a small country and their creative process.”

Based on his experiences overseas, particularly in the United States, Lemon says that New Zealand’s relative lack of resources probably leads to an aptitude for creativity and innovation. “We don’t struggle but we are challenged every day to work with what we have. It’s enough – but we still only have limited, we don’t have excess.”

Lemon sees plenty of potential in the Wellington-Hong Kong relationship.

“What’s happening over there in education is fantastic. I’m actually really excited about where they’re going and how easily we’ll be able to collaborate because we all seem to be moving in the same direction in the creative and digital areas.”

New media channels like the iPhone and Facebook are one emerging trend and have helped drive the continued growth of the digital entertainment sector despite a sluggish global economy. Cyberport’s

Dr Chung points out that social network media allows companies to take advantage of the global market. He gives IncuTrain graduate and game developer Emagist as an example: “They can have a lot of players on [new social networking channels] like Facebook . . . I would say over 95 per cent of the users are actually outside of Hong Kong. We didn’t see this happening before.” Dr Chung says that Android, iPhone and other new platforms have created tremendous opportunities for young entrepreneurs. “They can create little ’apps’ . . . then they can maintain very profitable and very healthy growth.”

Looking forward, Dr Chung predicts that the continued growth of broadband internet will spur on a more intelligent and interactive “Web 3.0” era over the next five years. “We will see the net itself getting more intelligent, so a lot of profiling to help you to get a lot of information easier,” he says, citing Tauranga- based Pingar as an example of a company already working in this space. “This is the kind of company we want to incubate.”

The rise of 3D internet will be another key trend. “You’ll be able to see a lot of the virtual world in 3D . . . your computer will be able to generate scopic 3D images very easily. It’s all happening.”

Dr Chung says that the top challenge for Cyberport will be to attract creative talent to turn these new technologies into fresh innovation and business opportunities. “That’s why I think, by the partnership with WelTec, we want to make sure that we can get the world-class partner to help us to help those creative talents, to flush through the projects that form from ideas, and then we’re able to generate the next big thing. That’s the challenge.”

After all, all the funding and facilities in the world are worth little without bright ideas.