|
Cyberport CEO Nicholas Yang Projects Next Big Wave in Asia
Pacific Business (May 2004)
Content-focused telecom, media and technology will propel Asia
Pacific business in the next decade, and Hong Kong is the platform
from which much of this wave will be launched. Speaking at a May
7 Association luncheon at the Los Angeles Omni Hotel, Hong Kong
Cyberport Management Company Ltd. CEO Nicholas W. Yang provided
a detailed look at the current state of the telecommunications
industry, an analysis of its fast-paced changes, and a forecast
of its future developments. Yang also gave a comprehensive overview
of the Cyberport project, a million-square-feet complex in Hong
Kong fusing "technology, people and business" via cyber, residential,
and corporate spaces.
A veteran of the electronic and telecommunications industries,
Nicholas Yang was appointed CEO of Hong Kong Cyberport Management
Company Ltd in October 2003. Yang has lived and worked in Hong
Kong for the past twenty years, and prior to joining Cyberport,
he was Executive Director of Shell Electric Manufacturing (Holdings)
Ltd from 1983 to 1999, Vice President of JDS Uniphase Corporation
from 1999 to 2002 and a senior consultant with Warburg Pincus
Asia LLC from 2002 to 2003.
Yang began by delineating what he termed the "next big wave"
in Asia - that of the telecom, media, and technology (TCT) industry,
and defined seven manifest growth trends due to take place within
the next five to ten years. He stressed that although China, with
its growing market for media content, is the ideal market for
potential TCT investors, its "traditional [and] regimented" business
system can be hard to interpret and understand. As such, Hong
Kong, with its many advantages, is the place that one should ultimately
consider for doing business in China.
Hong Kong's core competence, favorable infrastructure, and two-decade
economic relationship with China's government and business enterprises
comprise an important and unparalleled access factor necessary
for companies seeking initial entry and investment. Hong Kong's
superb IT service sector has created top-of-the-line e-structures
that have set the standard for comparable systems worldwide, and
its IT-related service sectors receive preferential treatment
and zero tariffs under Hong Kong's Closer Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA) with China.
The latest example of Hong Kong's IT ingenuity is the Cyberport
project. Located at the southwest end of Hong Kong Island, Cyberport
links a million square feet of commercial office space, a 300,000-square-feet
retail and entertainment complex, a 173-room five-star hotel and
3,000 residential units together with full wireless LAN coverage
on a ten gigabyte-per-second fiber optic network. Upon its final
completion in 2007, the Cyberport commercial towers will house
a cluster of 100 companies specializing in IT applications, information
services, and multi-media content creation.
Ultimately, the focus and drive of Cyberport is content. Two
Cyberport centers specializing in content delivery have already
been created, one in wireless application and development, the
other in digital media. One of the missions of the Cyberport is
bring technology closer to the market, and the centers will contribute
to this by providing training to professionals with the aid of
incentives and funding from the Hong Kong government. Cyberport
is not about technology, stated Yang, but the strategic integration
of people, IT and business. Cyberport's technology makes it unique,
but its "underlying human element" will make it a success.
Click here for Current
issues or other Past
issues of Hong Kong Focus Newsletter.
|
