Smart city's new engine: Low-Altitude Economy Shapes Hong Kong's New Industrial Landscape
The low-altitude economy is a key component in building smart cities, integrating multiple innovative technologies including unmanned aircrafts, passenger electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), airspace management, artificial intelligence (AI), and energy materials. Characterised by high growth, high integration, and high penetration, it is rapidly becoming a new industry contested worldwide. The Civil Aviation Administration of China projects the market size to reach RMB 1.5 trillion by 2025 and RMB 3.5 trillion by 2035.
Hong Kong has the distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world, along with multiple high-value scenarios for the low-altitude economy, including high-end logistics, emergency response, integration of culture and tourism, industrial applications, public utilities, and unmanned driving, demonstrating its potential for developing the low-altitude economy. The "Low-altitude Economy Tech Hall" launched by HKPC today marks the new starting point for the industrialisation of Hong Kong's low-altitude economy, providing a one-stop platform for research commercialisation, technology validation, standard setting, and application deployment.
Mr WONG Wai-lun, Michael, GBS, JP, Deputy Financial Secretary of the HKSAR Government said, "The government is actively promoting the development of the low-altitude economy and seeks collaborative partners to engage and work alongside various sectors. In March of this year, the government announced the first batch of 38 Regulatory Sandbox pilot projects, of which 17 have already begun testing. By the end of October, a total of 28 projects are expected to be in testing. This reflects enthusiastic responses from all sectors and showcases the government's swift progress in advancing the low-altitude economy, with a commitment to sustaining this momentum in the future."
Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC said, "Beyond being a showcase for innovative technologies, the 'Low-altitude Economy Tech Hall' is also a testbed for institutional innovation. Through this platform, we aim to bring together government, industry, academia, and research to jointly explore airspace management models and application scenarios in high-density urban environments, creating a 'Hong Kong model' for the low-altitude economy and further consolidating our position as an international I&T centre. HKPC is also the first institution recognised by Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department as an Advanced Small Unmanned Aircraft Training Organisation and holder of Advanced Operation Authorisation. We will continue to lead in system building and talent development."
Connecting upstream, midstream, and downstream: HKPC Develops an Innovative Low-Altitude Economy Industry Chain
In promoting the low-altitude economy, HKPC has linked the entire industry chain, integrating upstream – materials, manufacturing, and energy technologies, midstream – standards and testing platforms, and downstream – application deployment, infrastructure, and talent training:
- Upstream technology R&D: HKPC supports the development of hydrogen fuel cells, thermoplastic composite gas cylinders, microelectronic modules, and magnesium alloy materials and manufacturing to enhance drone endurance and structural light-weighting. Through 3D printing of drone components, HKPC bolsters local smart manufacturing capabilities. Successful cases include a self-developed carbon fiber–metal foam composite that simultaneously improves structural rigidity and airframe light-weighting.
- Midstream standards and institutional building: HKPC collaborates with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Greater Bay Area Standards Innovation Alliance, and others to establish risk-based standards, cross-border logistics standards, and other related manufacturing standards for regulatory sandboxes in the low-altitude economy, providing unified frameworks and risk thresholds for government, enterprises, and technology providers. HKPC is also Hong Kong's first Civil Aviation Department–recognized advanced training organisation for small unmanned aircraft. It is currently preparing to launch Category C small unmanned aircraft (25–150 kg) courses to align with the regulatory framework under the Small Unmanned Aircraft Order (Cap. 448G).
- Downstream application enablement: HKPC actively promotes drone deployment in scenarios such as logistics delivery, bridge inspection, emergency rescue, and power grid monitoring. Achievements include the Edison Gold Award–winning "Autonomous Air-ground Cooperative Tunnel Inspector," combining edge AI computing, high-precision Non-GPS Positioning, and a multi-robot ground–air collaborative solution. Not only does it greatly reduce the need for working at heights, but also makes tunnel inspections safer and more efficient; and the "EagleEye Power Grid Inspection System," a Gold Award winner at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, which uses embedded AI for real-time defect detection to enhance inspection efficiency and safety.
Exhibition × Sandbox × Go Global: The Low-altitude Economy Tech Hall as a one-stop I&T platform
As a pioneer in strengthening the low-altitude economy value chain, HKPC remains at the forefront of industry development. Located at the HKPC Building, the "Low-altitude Economy Tech Hall" features nearly 20 cutting-edge technologies from Hong Kong and the Mainland, spanning the entire value chain, including technical standard settings, materials and manufacturing technologies, eVTOL, medium-sized unmanned aircraft technologies, low-altitude digitalisation infrastructure, air traffic management, geographic information systems, and various types of application scenarios—showcasing Hong Kong's technical strength and collaborative potential in the low-altitude economy. In addition, it will offer hands-on operation experiences with small unmanned aircraft, allowing visitors to personally experience the appeal of frontier technologies.
The "Low-altitude Economy Tech Hall" also aligns with the Government's "regulatory sandbox" policy by establishing institutional testing scenarios that allow enterprises, government, and academia to test technologies, validate regulations, and promote policy coordination within a controlled environment. Industry partners are welcome to visit and exchange insights, and the public is invited to explore the technological achievements of the low-altitude economy. Reservations for visits are available via this link.
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About Hong Kong Productivity Council
The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) is a multi-disciplinary organisation established by statute in 1967, to promote productivity through relentless drive of world-class advanced technologies and innovative service offerings to support Hong Kong enterprises. As a nationwide leader in innovative, market-driven research and development (R&D), specialising in leading technologies and all-rounded manufacturing services, HKPC promotes new industrialisation in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland and facilitates the development of new productive forces, leveraging innovation and technology (I&T), as well as bolstering Hong Kong to be an international innovation and technology centre and a smart city. The Council offers comprehensive innovative solutions for Hong Kong industries and enterprises to enhance competitiveness. To further support businesses in expanding into global markets, HKPC has established "The Cradle – Go Global Service Centre", providing essential services to address businesses' needs in product development, technology, manufacturing, and management, empowering enterprises to successfully go global. The Council partners and collaborates with local industries and enterprises and world-class R&D institutes to promote technology transfer, product innovation, and commercialisation through product innovation, technology transfer, creating value for industries. HKPC's world-class R&D achievements have been widely recognised over the years, winning an array of local and overseas accolades.
In addition, HKPC offers SMEs and startups immediate and timely assistance in coping with the ever-changing business environment, and strengthens talent nurturing and Hong Kong's competitiveness with FutureSkills training for enterprises and academia to enhance digital capabilities and STEM competencies.
For more information, please visit HKPC's website: www.hkpc.org/en.
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