Innovation and technology will pump new energy into Hong Kong's ailing economy, while only by working with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can the city push the whole industry forward, the president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said.

Shyy Wei described innovation, science and technology as the "nuclei" that can stimulate the city's economy and bring new possibilities to the fixed economic structure. "But innovation and science technology cannot be something just created out of a vacuum," Shyy said.

The innovative ideas must go through tests, major adjustments and improvements before they come to fruition, which is not possible in a city of highly concentrated economy, he said.

In fact, many small economies in the world like Hong Kong, such as Israel and Sweden, need to be very open and internationally connected so that they can benefit by working with others who can provide thing they don't have, he said.

The mega 11-city cluster project can provide what Hong Kong lacks, such as "the whole supply chain, in terms of fabrication, prototyping, iteration and overall support", he said. "The Greater Bay Area is quite leading, in microelectronics, in miniaturized mechanical parts, even in some renewable energy areas," the mechanical and aerospace engineer continued.

Shyy said the story of DJI, a world-leading manufacturer of commercial drones, is a good example of the inseparable relationship between Hong Kong and the rest of the Bay Area.

DJI founder Frank Wang Tao built the first prototype of DJI's product and flight controllers in his dormitory when he studied at HKUST. He went through HKUST's incubation project and moved to Shenzhen to set up the company in 2006. The company was incubated for a long while at HKUST's Industry, Education and Research Building in Shenzhen. Today, DJI is the world's No 1 drone manufacturer, with a 70 percent of share of the global civilian drone market.

He also cited the example of Yunzhou Intelligent Technology, a leading enterprise dedicated to research, development and production on unmanned vessels in China. Company co-founder Zhang Yunfei, another HKUST alumnus, set up his business in Zhuhai, another city in the Bay Area, in 2010.

They are good examples of how the Bay Area brought in a full industrial chain for innovation and technology, assembling a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that included very upstream-conceptual development and new design thinking, and then testing, refinement and perfection, and onto the downstream of production and commercialization, Shyy said.

This is how different cities in the Bay Area contribute and play their own distinctive strengths, Shyy said. He said these alumni's stories serve as encouragement for other young scientists.

'Tide is turning'

Shyy observed that over the past two years, more enterprises are increasing their investments in research and development after seeing the potential. An example is the construction industry. Shyy revealed that the university is closely working with some world-leading companies from the construction sector to support research and development so that cutting-edge technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence and big data could be used in construction. And he expects it will soon be extended to all sectors.

In July, HKUST signed a cooperative agreement with Guangzhou Metro Group to jointly nurture professionals in intelligent transportation.

As HKUST is working with the Guangzhou municipal government and Guangzhou University to set up a new campus in the capital of Guangdong, Shyy foresees that the university will closely cooperate with more enterprises in the Bay Area to train students.