Exclusive interview with Cyberport CEO Ren Jingxin: What efforts has Cyberport put in behind the settlement of more than 180 Web3 companies?

Interview: kyle, PANews

Written by: Joy, PANews

Since Hong Kong issued a virtual asset policy declaration in October last year to encourage the development of Web3, Cyberport, which is located in Steel Bay in the southern district of Hong Kong and once shouldered the burden of cultivating and revitalizing Hong Kong’s technology industry, has become the vanguard of Web3 development. In February this year, the Hong Kong government’s budget clearly gave Cyberport a new position - “Hong Kong Web3 base”.

How is Cyberport’s Web3-related industries developing now, and what strong support will it provide to enterprises in the future? Recently, at the “2023 Digital Entertainment Leaders Forum” hosted by Cyberport, PANews had an exclusive interview with Cyberport CEO Yam Jingxin. According to him, since its establishment 20 years ago, Cyberport has accumulated more than 1,900 companies. In recent years, it has brought together more than 180 Web3-related companies and nearly 400 financial technology companies, including Animoca and ZA Bank. unicorn.

In terms of supporting the development of Web3 enterprises, Cyberport has done enough homework. During the interview, Ren Jingxin introduced that in terms of talent cultivation, Cyberport has launched the Web3 Academy to popularize Web3 science among the public and reverse everyone’s previous negative stereotypes about the Web3 field.

In terms of funds, the Hong Kong government has allocated 50 million yuan to the Cyberport to support the development of enterprises, and these funds will be gradually distributed to enterprises in the park within two years. In addition, each enterprise has the opportunity to enjoy the original funding support plan of Cyberport up to 1.1 million yuan. In addition to Cyberport’s own financial support, the park also builds an investor network, holds regular events, and helps companies obtain venture capital support.

In response to the difficulty in opening accounts faced by Web3 companies in the past, Cyberport also reminded and provided relevant explanations to banks to avoid a one-size-fits-all negative judgment on all Web3 companies, and to deal with individual cases more specifically. ZA Bank in the park is now Also become a virtual asset friendly bank.

In addition, for innovative businesses of enterprises, Cyberport also has a pilot program (PoC, proof of concept), which has set up a platform to allow concepts to be tested first. For example, the Cyberport will be tested first (such as Hang Seng Bank), and formal pilot opportunities will be officially started in September.

![Interview with Ren Jingxin, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport: Behind the settlement of more than 180 Web3 companies, what efforts have been made by Cyberport] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/resized-social/moments-69a80767fe-473c046305-dd1a6f- 1c6801)

Yam King-sun, CEO of Cyberport and PANews Kyle

The following is a summary of the interview:

**PANews: As the “Silicon Valley of Hong Kong”, what role does Cyberport play in promoting the development of Web3 in Hong Kong? What achievements can you share so far? **

Yam Jingxin: We established a Web3 base in Cyberport at the beginning of this year. In February this year, the Hong Kong government’s budget gave Cyberport a new position as “Hong Kong Web3 Base”, and we started immediately. Many related activities and trainings mainly start from three directions: the cultivation of talents, the development of industries, and the creation of new opportunities.

In terms of talent cultivation, Cyberport has established a Web3 Academy, which mainly cooperates with different universities, industry groups, and experts to carry out some training, record it with videos, and upload it to the Internet, so that more people can learn Web3 knowledge.

In terms of industrial development, we will actually promote some projects, such as Web3 Living Lab, to create a Web3 application experience area, so that web3 companies in the park can have a place to display their applications, and on the other hand, it can be used for promotion These Web3 applications.

In addition, Cyberport also has a pilot program (PoC, proof of concept), which sets up a platform to allow the concept to be tested first, and the digital Hong Kong dollar to be tested first (such as Hang Seng Bank), and the formal pilot opportunity will not officially start until September.

In terms of creating new opportunities, we will have some popular science on Web3 to popularize the concept of Web3 to the general public, so that everyone can experience and hold activities, so that the public can feel the benefits of web3, so that practitioners can consider switching to web3. The market is educated. At present, many people’s influence on Web3 is still in the virtual currency, which is a relatively negative impact. We hope that through organizing activities, we can change everyone’s impression.

**PANews: What is the current situation of Web3 companies that have settled in Cyberport? What kind of support can they provide? **

Yam Jingxin: There are more than 800 companies in the park, of which more than 180 are related to Web3. Most of them are companies outside Hong Kong. Of course, some are from local projects and companies in Hong Kong. The number accumulated by Cyberport in the past There are more than 1,900 companies (all types of companies) (currently settled + previously settled), and they have always been linked to Cyberport.

Cyberport’s four networks:

Cyberport corporate network, investor network, technology partner network, professional service network

• Enterprise Network:

Cyberport will lead the matching of these enterprises. Its main function is to match business opportunities, help enterprises to match enterprises, and match resources. For example, it maintains cooperation with China Resources. China Resources has many application scenarios, and it also needs some For new applications, Cyberport will help him match such needs.

• Investor Network:

There will be some local and international venture capital institutions, investment matching (medium scale) at least once every quarter, and large-scale investment matching once a year. CVCF (Cyberport Venture Capital Forum) will be held in December to help projects Fang finds money and finds technology partners, so that they can land faster and enter the market.

• Technology Partner Network:

In the past, you may have wanted to develop your own technology, but now there are many mature tools and modules that allow teams to integrate directly, helping entrepreneurial teams to improve their products faster, put the products into the market, and test them multiple times. Improve the subsequent success rate (if you are a member of the incubator plan or cultivation plan, you can enjoy it for free) to verify such a business model. Cyberport has larger technical teams such as Tencent and Alibaba to cooperate to provide companies in the park with Some such as cloud tool platforms.

• Professional service network:

There will be some intellectual property and audit companies to provide the best tax solutions or other professional services to companies in the park. When projects are going overseas, these resources will be needed, especially for technology (technical background) companies. support for this.

**PANews: Director Chen Maobo previously disclosed that he allocated 50 million yuan to promote the development of Cyberport Web3 enterprises. Can you disclose the purpose and specific plan of this allocation? **

Ren Jingxin: It will mainly be used in the following three aspects: talent cultivation, industry development, and marketing (the proportion will be slightly larger). It needs to be emphasized that this 50 million is for the Cyberport to use funds ( To promote the development of Web3), rather than giving it directly to the web3 team, the 50 million will be used for 2 years, but it is expected that most of the funds will be used in the previous year. Although the 50 million will not be given directly to the web3 team, these web3 teams can enjoy the coverage of the original 1.1 million subsidy.

**PANews: Compared with traditional enterprises, Web3 project management risk control is more difficult, so how will Cyberport deal with this risk? **

Ren Jingxin: Cyberport has different types of web3 companies. Cyberport will have its own set of classification methods to classify them: infrastructure companies (chain companies), tools/data/professional services / Application companies (that is, companies that assist in infrastructure construction), because of the development of blockchain, some new service companies (security companies, audit companies) have also spawned traditional audit methods for web3 projects and companies That said, it may not be applicable, and regulators need to understand web3 auditing, and also need to formulate some rules and standards for your reference.

And Cyberport will not adjust the risks of these companies, because Cyberport is not a regulatory agency, and it does not need to issue licenses for these companies, so it has no ability to assess their risks. What Cyberport needs to do is to build a web3 As for the ecosystem, we need to know which related companies need to participate in a complete and thriving ecosystem, and to find these companies and let them enter the Cyberport, so the Cyberport maintains a very open attitude.

**PANews: It has been reported that many Web3 companies are facing difficulties in opening bank accounts due to KYC and anti-money laundering regulations. Will Cyberport help park companies solve bank account opening problems? **

Ren Jingxin: Regulatory agencies (China Securities Regulatory Commission, Hong Kong Monetary Authority) will not make some very loose regulations when launching KYC or other regulatory frameworks. In Cyberport’s view, regulatory agencies will not target web3 companies. , proposing more stringent or less stringent regulatory standards.

As for the difficulty of opening an account for Web3 companies, I think it can be viewed from two aspects. The first is that as mentioned just now, this standard will not become stricter or looser just because you are a Web3 company. It is different from other standards. On the same level, the second is that the difficulty of opening an account for Web3 companies has little to do with KYC and anti-money laundering, mainly because some traditional banks will equate you with virtual currency as soon as they hear that you are doing web3, and then No account will be opened for you.

Cyberport has no right to require banks to open accounts. It can only do the same as the Monetary Authority, reminding these traditional banks that when faced with Web3 companies applying for account opening, they can handle specific cases seriously, instead of just seeing web3. It is virtual currency, and then directly reject it.

On the other hand, in Cyberport’s corporate network, there are actually some financial companies, such as two banks including Zhongan Bank. What we can do is to explain to these banks what Web3 is like. Hope They can conduct audits according to government standards. On the one hand, these banks themselves may be in the web3 circle, and on the other hand, they are also cultivated by Cyberport, so they are relatively friendly to web3 companies. In general, the difficulty of opening an account is a thing of the past, and the situation is different now.

**PANews: Since the implementation of the new encryption policy, many companies have come to Hong Kong to develop. Can you tell us what plans Cyberport currently has to attract and help more Web3 companies and talents? **

Ren Jingxin: Cyberport has always had relevant plans and subsidies for the cultivation of talents, and provides corresponding subsidies for teams at different periods and stages. The total of all free subsidies for each company can reach 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars to promote the successful landing of these projects in Hong Kong.

If you only have an idea or concept, you can apply for a subsidy of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (to be used within half a year) without even establishing a company.

When you have a specific business model and a specific application prototype, you can apply for a subsidy of 500,000 Hong Kong dollars after establishing a Hong Kong company and participating in the Cyberport incubation plan, plus 2 years of free use of the Cyberport office space, and you can also apply for The two extended subsidies, including the accelerator program (300,000 Hong Kong dollars) and marketing (200,000 Hong Kong dollars), all combined up to get 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars in funding + 2 years of free office space.