(Yicai Global) April 18 -- The Chinese mainland companies that participated in Hong Kong’s first-ever InnoEx, a new business-to-business platform for next-generation smart solutions, cutting-edge technologies, and disruptive innovations, secured orders and wider publicity from the event.

“Shanghai YVR Technology gained many orders from Japan, Canada, the United States, Indonesia, and Singapore, as well as a large number of potential customers during InnoEx,” Zhu Ran, chief marketing officer of the virtual reality devices developer, told Yicai Global. The company will likely participate in the event again next year, Zhu added.

Another Shanghai-based company said it participated in the four-day InnoEx to increase its international exposure, as Hong Kong is the capital of digital services. Many customers inquired about the firm’s products, which have a huge potential market, it added.

Co-organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, InnoEx attracted over 2,600 exhibitors from 19 countries and regions worldwide, including 12 delegations from 10 provincial-level regions and municipalities in the Chinese mainland. It was held from April 12 to 15.

“Hong Kong, which boasts advantages in terms of talents and languages, is becoming the first stop for Chinese mainland companies to expand their digital business overseas,” said Xue Wu, chief strategy officer of Huawei’s Asia-Pacific strategy and marketing department. The Shenzhen-based telecoms giant had a more than 600-square-meter exhibition area at InnoEx.

Hong Kong has many internationally renowned universities with strong research and development capabilities, Xue added, saying that Huawei Technologies’ research institute in the HKSAR, which was established in 2008, has partnered with local universities to jointly cultivate talent in the field of scientific research, Xue noted.

At InnoEx, the industrial park in Shanghai’s Lingang New Area inked a cooperation agreement with Hong Kong’s Cyberport business park, said Sun Dong, the HKSAR’s secretary for innovation, technology, and industry. The deal provides room for collaboration between firms based in the industrial parks on development opportunities in the two cities, Sun pointed out.

Lingang boasts almost 100 companies willing to expand their business in Hong Kong, Sun added, noting that the nearly 100 firms in Cyberport also wish to develop in the Chinese mainland.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione