The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released the “Hong Kong Innovation Activities Statistics 2017” on December 31, 2018. The statistics show that the gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) of Hong Kong in 2017 amounted to $21.28 billion, representing an increase of 8% when compared with 2016. The GERD as a ratio to the Gross Domestic Product in 2017 was 0.8%.

Since the establishment of the Innovation and Technology Bureau in 2015, substantial resources have been devoted to strengthening Hong Kong's innovation and technology (I&T) ecosystem and stimulating research and development (R&D) activities. A number of new initiatives were introduced last year, such as providing enhanced tax deduction of up to 300% for R&D expenditure incurred by enterprises; injecting $10 billion into the Innovation and Technology Fund to support more R&D work by universities, public research institutes and private enterprises; and allocating $10 billion for setting up two research clusters at the Hong Kong Science Park to attract top local, Mainland and overseas R&D institutions to conduct more collaborative research in Hong Kong.

The "Hong Kong Innovation Activities Statistics 2017" report presents the latest statistics on R&D activities in Hong Kong, with analyses of R&D activities performed in the business, higher education and government sectors. More detailed statistics on Hong Kong innovation activities, together with the concepts and methodology, are given in the report, which can be downloaded from the C&SD website.