A view of Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong Photo: VCG

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government strongly opposes newly-announced US investment restrictions targeting a number of high-tech sectors on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, but the curbs are unlikely to impact the development of Hong Kong's technology innovations, Sun Dong, Secretary for Hong Kong Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, told media on Saturday.

In the short term, some tech firms in Hong Kong may face some challenge in fund-raising, but the US' investment curbs have no impact on the city in the long-term, as the city is attracting more capital from the Chinese mainland and other regions of the world while stepping up efforts to attract more talent, Sun said, according to a statement posted on the HKSAR government's website.

Some individual countries' restrictive measures will neither affect the development of next-generation technologies and industrial reforms, nor affect the rise of China and the decline of the West, he said.

"The HKSAR government is determined to boost the city's tech development and make it one of the most important drivers of the high-quality growth of the economy. The unreasonable US crackdown and bullying will only cement our resolve to develop technologies so as to create new channels for the economy and contribute to the country's tech self-reliance," Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote on his blog on Sunday.

Chan said that Hong Kong has the advantage of gathering data from both the mainland and the world, which serves as a strong basis for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the city.

Chan noted that the mainland government agency and the HKSAR signed a memorandum of understanding in June to promote cross-boundary data flows in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Chan said the HKSAR government has started a feasibility study on the establishment of an AI supercomputing center in the city that's expected to finish by year-end. In addition to nurturing local tech start-ups, the city's government is strengthening efforts to attract key tech firms to promote the development of the city's AI ecosystem.

"As an international city, Hong Kong has the unique advantage of One Country, Two Systems. We will continue to encourage diversified sci-tech investment and enrich financing channels, with increased efforts to be made to attract capital from the Chinese mainland and other regions across the world to support the development of Hong Kong companies and upstarts," Sun said.

Talent is another key factor of sci-tech development. Hong Kong will fully leverage its advantage as a global destination to attract more talent from the world to inject momentum to the city's development, he said.

The HKSAR government will be more active in integrating with the country's development blueprint and cement its own advantage in order to give a boost to the progress of the city's tech industry, Sun said, noting that the HKSAR government will take measures to protect the city's own rights and interests.

Global Times