Hong Kong Towards a Leading Global FinTech Hub

70 71 Talent Part I: Examination of Seven Fintech Hubs having the largest tech talent pool in the US, with approximately 379,000 people in 2020, followed by New York City at around 268,000. San Francisco is also the top-ranked tech market in the US, having the highest annual average wage for tech talent at more than US$136,000. 248 The overall Silicon Valley’s fintech talent pool is larger than that of the UK’s. 249 Apart from the robust technology community in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco attracts high quality fintech talent due to its close proximity to internationally renowned post-secondary education institutions. The University of California, Berkeley’s MBA program offers multiple fintech-focused courses, and Stanford University has a partnership program with the StartX Accelerator to support entrepreneurs through tailored education programs and funding support. At the state level, the California government initiated a STEM Task Force 250 to improve teaching and access to STEM-related courses for primary and high school students, with the aim to better equip the next generation for the digital era. Having access to graduates with a tech-related degree might not be enough to satisfy the industry’s need for fintech skills, as technology is changing so rapidly that university programs may not be able to keep up. Thus, universities and the industry are partnering up to drive the momentum. For example, the Plug and Play Tech Center, the world’s largest innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley, has launched an elite executive education program called University 165 , 251 to collaborate with innovation experts, top-tier universities and industry leaders. The Government of New York City is also active in nurturing tech talent, with a focus on having local businesses hire local talent. The city started the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline program 252 in 2014, engaging the industry and higher education institutions to equip students with the right skills for careers in the technology sector, and connects talent and local businesses for jobs after the training. One example of training programs is the Tech Talent Pipeline Residency , 253 a three-month program jointly offered by The City University of New York (CUNY) and The New York Code and Design Academy to place computer science students in emerging tech roles of local businesses. Another example is the CUNY Tech Prep , 254 a year-long professional development program teaching in-demand tech skills to industry practitioners in the computer science field. The government recognizes the growing significance and the emergency of nurturing local talent for New York City. In 2011, the city set out to build a US$2bn graduate school of applied sciences with Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology: the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. Aside from conducting research, collaborating with tech companies and organizations, launching their own startups, and offering seven Master’s programs, the campus also has a dedicated K-12 initiative to bring tech education into local schools. The Technion-Cornell campus is one of three projects of the Applied Science NYC 255 program with a target to address the technology talent shortage in New York City and to expand talent capacity within the applied sciences and technology sector, including fintech. 248. CBRE. | 2020 Tech Talent Analyzer. | https://mapping.cbre.com/maps/Scoring-Tech-Talent-2020/ 249. Hot Topics. | The continuing increase of fintech startup investment in Silicon Valley (2020). | https://www. hottopics.ht/26441/the-rise-of-fintech-startup-investment-in- san-francisco/ 250. California, Department of Education. | STEM Task Force . | https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/stemtf.asp 251. Plug and Play. | University 165 . | https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/university-165/ 252. NYC Talent Pipeline. | https://www.techtalentpipeline.nyc/ 253. The NYC Tech Talent Pipeline . | https://nycda.com/ttp/index.html 254 CUNY Tech Prep . | https://cunytechprep.nyc/ 255 NYC EDU. | Applied Sciences NYC. | https://edc.nyc/project/applied-sciences-nyc 256. The White House. | Fact Sheet: President Biden Sends Immigration Bill to Congress as Part of His Commitment to Modernize our Immigration System (Jan 2021). | https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements- releases/2021/01/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-sends-immigration-bill-to-congress-as-part-of-his- commitment-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/ 257. Bloomberg. | Japan Ranked Last Choice in Asia for Top Foreign Talent (Nov 2017). | https://www. bloombergquint.com/global-economics/japan-ranked-last-choice-in-asia-for-top-foreign-talent 258. Except University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University also contributed to groom university-based startups. The three universities established 268, 191, and 141 startups in the fiscal year 2019 respectively. For details, please visit Statista. Number of university-based startups in Japan in fiscal year 2019, by major university (2021). | https://www.statista.com/statistics/895274/japan-university-based-startup-number-by- major-university/ While both New York and San Francisco have easy access to talent from across the country, the US currently faces uncertainty about its immigration policy. Although the Whitehouse released an Immigration Bill Fact Sheet on 20 January 2021, 256 as of the time this report is being prepared, it remains to be seen if the bill will be passed by Congress or further revised. Tokyo: Lacking Homegrown Tech Talent, Challenged to Attract Foreign Talent Tokyo has become the world’s financial center for virtual currency, having attracted many foreign companies to make it the designated home for operations in the cryptocurrency space. With both foreign investment and regulations in place for a strong cryptocurrency industry, fintech companies are struggling to find talent. Traditionally not a destination for entrepreneurship with relatively few startups compared with the other fintech hubs, Japan severely lacked blockchain experts in the early 2010’s. By 2016, Japan was facing a growing shortage of IT workers skilled in big data, AI, and IoT. As reported by the Japanese economy ministry, the country was expecting a shortfall of nearly 200,000 information security workers. 257 Over the last decade, a new breed of young entrepreneurs started to emerge. Many Japanese startups were born at elite universities in Japan. In 2019, the University of Tokyo alone groomed 268 startups. 258 As established companies start to view startups as potential partners in tech to help their core business, large Japanese banks have started partnering with startups to find talent. 268 The University of Tokyo Kyoto University Osaka University Tohuku University Kyushu University University of Tsukuba Nagoya University Keio University Waseda University Tokyo Institute of Technology 191 141 121 117 114 94 85 85 75 0 Number of Startups 50 100 150 200 250 300 Source: Statista, 2021 [ Exhibit 19 ] : Number of University-based Startups in Japan in Fiscal Year 2019, by Major University