Tai Po
Prepared by Good City Foundation (GCF) and
Hong Kong Scholarship for
Excellence Scheme Scholars Association (HKSESSA)

Tai Po District has been one of the highlights of the new
town development since the 1970s with steady
population growth from 67,000 in the 70s to 306,800
latest in 2019, with steady young generation (20 - 39
years-old) at 38.3% (population of 119,200) and active
workforce at 45.9% (population of 141,000). (Social
Welfare Department, 2016) The District has been well
developed with a fair distribution of primary and
secondary education institutes across the District with
high proximity to the high-tech zone, Hong Kong
Science and Technology Park and the Lok Ma Chau
Loop and Shenzhen. The recent labour and welfare
policy focuses on the upskilling to strengthen the local
employability and stronger future development of
talents to fulfil the rapid need of technological
transformation of business and economy. While Tai Po
has been fairly a socio-economically resilient District,
About
The Social Entrepreneurship Lab
in Tai Po District
67,000
38.3% 45.9%
306,800
Population Growth
1970
20-39 years old
(population of 119,200)
Active Workforce
(population of 141,000)
2019
DEMOGRAPHICS OF TAI PO DISTRICT

her demography intrinsically empowers the District to
take leadership for urban transformation for social
goods, especially through technological and social
innovation.
Reindustrialisation is gaining momentum in Hong Kong
with government’s policy and funding support, which
encourages manufacturers to set up smart production
lines in Hong Kong. The initiative aims
1. to promote the development of intelligent and high
value-added manufacturing industries in Hong Kong in
order to generate greater business opportunities,
2. to bring research and development results into
production,
3. to empower the future development of the society,
4. to diversify the economy of Hong Kong.
To fulfill such new sustainable development and urban
renewal, the Tai Po Industrial Estate is positioned as a
strategic entry point of social-technological innovation.
Young people and stakeholders in Tai Po shall take the
opportunity to get familiar with the future potentiality of
the District development. With the New Normal upon
the global pandemic, reindustrialisation of old estates
led to a high urban innovation platform for the young
Hong Kong generation to venture and land on better
future jobs.
In this regard, the representative from Good City
Foundation is taking the opportunity to be the
community chair of Social Enterprise Summit at Tai Po
and initiate community programmes in Tai Po District
along with Social Enterprise Summit. The SE Lab
envisions to draw a longer term bottom-up development
picture and potential urban social transformation of the
industrial estate in the district as a “smart district”
socio-economic engine to create more new jobs, new
economic opportunities and hence a stronger sense of
district-belonging.
Tai Po District

With the keynote provided by Dr. HL Yiu, the Hong Kong
Science and Technology Parks has placed Tai Po
Industrial Estate (TPIE) as one of the three strategic
locations for industrialization and full technological
economic transformation. Synergetic with the Vision
2030+ of Hong Kong and the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong
Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone under
the 14th 5-Year Plan of Mainland China, Tai Po District,
as part of the New Territories North development, would
be positioning as a smart industrial innovation and
technology economic engine. Yet, to unleash the
economic potential, there is a room for further district
branding and talent supplies, where more local
communities and inter-district collaboration would be
needed to ensure the district society are up to readiness
for economic reform, talent retention and public policy
coordination.
Jurong Innovation District was presented by the Jurong
Town Corporation in Singapore as a demonstration of
land renovation and sustainability planning over the
built environment. A long-term mixed land use planning
with full fledge community engagement (from high
school, universities, residential and commercial) is
deployed in the Jurong West district to ensure the local
economy is circular and self-sufficient, where the young
workforce educated in the Nanyang Technological
University would translate their learnings into local
innovation and technological experiment in industrial-
commercial mixed buildings. While the environment of
the campus and communities are planned green to
ensure a high degree of liveability and natural habitat-
friendly.
By HKSTP Reindustrialisation Team
Singapore Mixed Land Use and District-Level Sustainability Design
in Communities
By Jurong Innovation District (by JTC) as a Case Study
Head of Reindustrialisation Hong
Kong Science and Technology Parks
Ir Dr. H.L. Yiu
Current State of
Reindustrialisation in Tai Po District

Industrialisation 4.0, Reindustrialisation,
Policy Entrepreneurship and Greater Bay Area
Insights from the Policy Psychology Test (Focus Groups)
Sustainability As
A Global Movement
District Level
Public Innovation
Redesigning Industry and
Supply Chain
Policy Entrepreneurship
To Fill The Missing Piece
• Sustainable and Regenerative Future by
Industrialisation 4.0
• Reindustrialisation as a Supply Chain Digitisation
UN Sustainable Development Goal 17 as an
Alignment of Sustainability Mindset
• Collaborative Advantage in Tai Po District
• Future Skills and Relevant Curriculum as a Missing
Puzzle
• All Stakeholders Participation in Economy Design
• Policy Entrepreneurship as an Action Spirit
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UN Sustainable Development Goal 17 as an Alignment of
Sustainability Mindset
Corporates with positive cultures such as social mindsets
and human-centric attitudes of sustainability shall be
promoted with aligned narratives that are incorporated with
the global development goal and awareness.
Sustainable and Regenerative Future by
Industrialisation 4.0
“Product What You Need”. Digitalisation with
deployment IoT technologies empower supply chains in
local districts to have a more clear grasp of
understanding of the markets (local and global) on
“what is in demand in reality” and “how much is
sufficient given a period of time?”. A clear check and
balance of demand and supply through big data in
Industrialisation 4.0 would encourage effective
sustainability elements in district economy outputs and
even inter-district economic collaboration, i.e. supplying
more to the less produced districts.
Reindustrialisation as a Supply Chain Digitisation
Reindustrialisation Education (Labour Supply), Design,
Research and Development (R&D) and Manufacturing
as a new industry and economic reform in Hong Kong.
2. Redesigning Industry and Supply Chain
1. Sustainability As A Global Movement

All Stakeholders Participation in Economy Design -
Industrialisation 4.0 and reindustrialisation implies an
up-stream and down-stream industry transformation to
an economy and its different parts of the supply chain.
However, in the case of Tai Po District, there seems to
be a lack of coordinating agents in the public that
effectively conveys the public needs and opinions to
public policy innovation, hence a lack of new economic
development by community entrepreneurship.
Policy Entrepreneurship as an Action Spirit
Ground-up local community public innovation requires
the most efforts and time investment to develop
effective public policies. It may take the spirit of
entrepreneurship to listen and collect feedback from all
walks of life.
Collaborative Advantage in Tai Po District
Tai Po District is in a strategic location with
comprehensive facilities such as the Chinese
University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Education
University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) and Tai Po
Industrial Estate (TPIE) with a high population of
young talents to engage future industries to bridge
to regional markets such as Greater Bay and Belt
and Road global supply chains.
Future Skills and Relevant Curriculum
as a Missing Puzzle
More corporates and tech startups are providing more
practical opportunities for younger generations to have
more hands-on experience to encourage moments of
self-awareness of their own future, roles in society and
their social expectation. More apprentices or practicum
opportunities with the industries shall be further
immersed with the industries so the younger
generations could explore further their academic uses
in reality.
Tai Po
Industrial
Estate
3. District Level Public Innovation
4. Policy Entrepreneurship To Fill The Missing Piece

Policy Implications and Action Suggestions
Consolidating the feedbacks and insights, a set of policy implications and action
suggestions are proposed below for further discussion and action roadmap planning
with the key stakeholders in Tai Po District
“Tai Po Innovation District” Initiative
A more globalised and community centric narrative and
storytelling for reindustrialisation in Tai Po District shall
be deployed. Word choice that connects the youth
(Innovativeness, Values of Jobs and Strong Sense of
Community Ownership) and global outlooks (such as
UN SDGs and Green Economy) would build District-
Owned Brand Values with related key stakeholders as a
community. The “Tai Po Innovation District” is a park
connector between residential communities in the Tai
Po Centre and Tai Po Industrial Estate for the purpose
of place-making.
Establishment of District Level Public Innovation
Committee / Task Force
Further to the District-Owned storytelling, a cross-sector
committee / task force is encouraged to establish for
Tai Po District specific public innovation. The
committee, with the stakeholders from the up-stream
and down-stream in the value-chain, may serve as a
transitional agent to coordinate the public needs, new
industry movements and policy innovations in the
district.
Open Space Experiment in
Tai Po District (SE Lab in 2022)
The Open Space Experiment serves to drive open data
community in Tai Po through the drive of the District
Level Public Innovation Committee to encourage more
public technological or social innovation in the
proposed “Tai Po Innovation District”. The Open Space
Experiment would be materialised as an online
visualised interactive website where citizens can be
notified of the latest district innovation updates; and
local innovators and private sectors can consume the
open data for plug and play innovation.
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• Ms. Rebecca Choy Yung, Chairlady, Social Enterprise Summit, Hong Kong
• Mr. Nick Ng, Social Enterprise Summit Secretariat
• Ms. Summer Ip, Social Enterprise Summit Secretariat
• Ms. Rosie Lee, Social Enterprise Summit Secretariat
• Mr. Jonathan Ho, Assistant District Officer (Tai Po), Home Affairs Department, Hong Kong SAR Government
• Mr. Andre Kwok, Founder, Good City Foundation
• Mr. Caden Li, Member, Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme Association
• Dr. Lawrence Yu, Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme Association
• Ir Dr. H.L. Yiu, Head of Re-industrialisation, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks
• Ms. Ka Wai Chan, Senior Manager, Re-industrialisation, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks
• Mr. Lemon H.M. KWAN, Senior Knowledge Transfer Manager, The Education University of Hong Kong
• Ms. Lillian Chan, Executive Director, Lee Kee Group
• Ms. Sandra Kwok (Intern), District Office (Tai Po), Home Affairs Department, Hong Kong SAR Government
• Mr. Richard Leung, Co-Founder, BNET-TECH
Gratitude to SE Lab Participants in Tai Po District
主辦機構 Organiser 合辦機構 Co-Organiser
支持機構 Supported By
Strategic Partner & Venue Sponsor 贊助機構 Sponsor