by Xinhua writer Liu Yinglun
HONG KONG, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- In 2025, Hong Kong's economy thrived on the daring steps taken by its companies to nurture greener growth as well as to produce more rewarding consumer experiences.
The economy expanded 3.3 percent year on year in the first three quarters, which could lift the real GDP growth forecast for 2025 from around 2 to 3 percent to 3.2 percent. The number of local companies topped 1.5 million by the end of July, while that of non-Hong Kong firms surpassed 15,000, both at all-time highs, local data showed.
QUALITY CONSUMPTION
Hong Kong, a trade hub, is at the cusp of evolving consumer appetites -- they crave greener and healthier products as well as sentimental value. Companies in Hong Kong, regardless of their size, are agile enough to monetize the trends and, in turn, perfect the consumer experience.
Restaurant owner Billy Lau can speak to the emerging desire to socialize in eateries. His cafe in Tsim Sha Tsui East, opened three years ago across the street from the Hong Kong-style diner he had operated for about a decade, has seen businesses double by dint of crossover collaborations with mobile games and anime shows.
"Restaurants today should always give the customers photo-ops," Lau said. These collaborations, usually coming with a menu customized by Lau's chef as well as Hong Kong-exclusive merchandise provided by the local licensors, make the cafe a rendezvous for fans worldwide to dress up as their favorite characters and celebrate their shared infatuation. Lau and his staff had learned to volunteer as photographers of the giddy get-togethers.
While some seek spiritual comfort, others please their palates with chemical-free farm produce, which Wong Chin Ming spent 20 years growing in his two-hectare Hung Yat Farm. The landscape designer-turned farm operator had long sensed the growing market demand for wholesome food and felt the urgency of tackling soil degradation and antimicrobial resistance resulting from overdependence on chemicals in agriculture.
To that end, Wong makes bio-enzyme fertilizers from kitchen waste to substitute chemical fertilizers, and grows companion plants like eggplant and choy sum to control pests.
Wong has supplied Michelin-starred restaurants and 7-Elevens alike. While domestic agricultural output is far from supplying the entire city, Wong noted, growing locally can cut carbon footprints and deliver vegetables to kitchens across Hong Kong at their freshest without preservatives.
SCI-TECH BOOST
Home to five QS-listed top 100 universities, Hong Kong ranks 15th among 139 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index 2025. The abundance of top research and development (R&D) talents made it a cradle of corporate innovation.
A bevy of companies decided to set up R&D centers in Hong Kong in 2025, including Japanese digital equipment supplier Ricoh and chip designer Arm China, continuing a steady streak of corporate research arms established in the city in recent years.
Thanks to Hong Kong's overall innovation prowess, local companies are rapidly embracing intelligent transformation. A survey on around 800 firms conducted by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), a statutory body aimed at promoting new industrialization, showed widespread use of AI tools in business operations, with 24 percent of the firms reporting plans to fully integrate AI into workflows within one year.
Steel manufacturer Wo Lee Green Solutions Ltd. has worked with the HKPC to install a smart welding system featuring robotic arms, which increased the yield rate of high-tensile steel beams from 80 percent to around 98 percent.
"Intelligent transformation is our best way out," said Matthew Lai, chief executive officer of the company. While its production now spans the nearby Guangdong Province, Wo Lee will continue to keep the lights on its Hong Kong factory for R&D and training purposes, said Lai. Now the company is working with specialists to adapt portable robotic arms to the technically demanding process of welding steel pipes.
Manufacturing companies like Wo Lee adopting smart industrial solutions can spur innovation, because sci-tech startups and young entrepreneurs can use the factories as testing grounds for their big ideas, said Edmond Lai, chief digital officer of the HKPC.
SPEEDY UPGRADE
Hong Kong was ranked the freest economy in the world once again in 2025 by the Fraser Institute. Companies here find at their disposal easy access to global markets and an accommodating business environment. However, the rules of the game might change, and they find ways to stay above the curve, or even set new standards.
Lau attributed the cafe's success partly to Hong Kong's brisk cultural trade and sound intellectual property rights protection. Content licensors representing shows and games would pay undercover visits to his cafe, where Lau proved to them that smaller local businesses can run the collaborations just as well as big restaurant chains.
Lau expects the increasing popularity of mainland-developed mobile games to sustain the steady stream of customers who are more than willing to invest a dime in what they love.
In industrial production, Hong Kong's status as a free port, combined with the supply chain strengths of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, allows local companies to adjust quickly to shifting demands of foreign clients, said Edmond Lai.
On the agricultural front, Hong Kong is the "perfect place" to experiment with circular economy models that serve the interests of farmers, consumers and the environment at large, according to Wong.
As part of a sustainable development project, catering firm Maxim's Group sends Wong raw food waste every week for him to make enzymes, and buys the produce from Hung Yat Farm to replenish supplies at restaurants and university canteens it operates across Hong Kong.
"I've always known there is a market for chemical-free farm produce, and eco-friendly local firms like Maxim's Group know where the market is," said Wong. ■
