Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government spares no effort to create an innovation culture and foster creativity as well as interest to the Hong Kong youngsters in a bid to promote innovation and technology development, an government official said on Saturday.

For this purpose, the HKSAR government provides funding support and improving the technological infrastructure to the youngsters, said the Acting Financial Secretary Carrie Lam.

Officiating at the prize presentation ceremony of the Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2008, Lam said that to cope with the knowledge-based economy in the 21st century, innovation and technology provided the impetus for sustaining economic development, hence nurturing of technology talents had received much attention all over the world.

She added that China had achieved rapid development in innovation and technology in recent years and aimed to boost economic and social development through technology.

"The Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition" is one of the core government programs to promote an innovation and technology culture in the community. Moving towards its 10th anniversary, it has become one of the most popular competitions for students. More than 3,000 students have produced outstanding investigation reports and inventions under the encouragement of teachers and guidance of advisers in the past 10 years. Some students have even won awards in international science competitions.

Under the theme of "Nurturing Youth for a Decade, Kindling Enthusiasm for Science", the competition this year has attracted 142 teams totaling 525 students from 57 schools, including 14 schools which are first time entrants.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2008)