Enterprise technology and services firm R3 has established an official presence in Hong Kong, opening its “Innovation Lab” at Cyberport. Cyberport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with R3 to provide Hong Kong’s financial services and FinTech sectors with blockchain technology innovation resources relating to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).The collaboration will bring R3’s suite of trust technology – Corda, its distributed ledger platform, and Conclave, its confidential computing platforms, closer to Hong Kong’s FinTech start-ups and enterprises to support the creation of next-generation software applications based on digital trust technologies. This partnership is the latest in a string of CBDC-focused initiatives that R3 has undertaken which include the Bank of Thailand’s Project Inthanon. 

The two parties, via R3 Sandbox for Digital Currencies will launch a series of blockchain training programme for technical developers later this year to help all companies within the Cyberport community to seize the transformative opportunities offered by blockchain and CBDCs, as outlined within the FinTech Vision 2025 by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Through R3’s Digital Currency Sandbox, companies can experiment with CBDCs and interact with a global and a diverse pool of participants to explore how they could incorporate certain forms of CBDCs development within their own businesses.

As part of the launch of the “R3 Innovation Lab”, R3 is proud to welcome several high-profile technology partners including Red Date Technology which drives the global Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), HK’s home-grown technology transformative giant Cherrypicks, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in joining the lab as the inaugural “Innovation Partners” to foster collaborations in co-researching and co-creating possible new technology solutions based on blockchain and confidential computing.

The R3 Innovation Lab will serve as an agile transformative space where Cyberport, R3 and all the Innovation Partners will come together to offer support resources, training curriculum, technology comprehension, industry expertise; and work closely with ecosystem stakeholders to co-create more fintech innovations within Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area to contribute to Hong Kong’s long-term success as a prominent global leader in technology innovations.

Peter Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport, said, “The Central Government has been striving to promote e-CNY. By the end of last year, the usage of e-CNY had reached 87.5 billion yuan of transactions with 261 million individual wallets set up. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is actively studying CBDC payment and settlement in Hong Kong to help promote mutual access in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and support the consolidation of Hong Kong's status as a global offshore RMB business hub. CBDC will drive demand for blockchain applications and create a huge opportunity. With blockchain being one of the key technology clusters, Cyberport and its Cyberport Academy organised various seminars, workshops and competitions to promote blockchain applications. This collaboration with R3 will further nurture and gather talents of blockchain and relevant technologies to consolidate Hong Kong’s edge in advanced technology.”

Amit Ghosh, Chief Information & Services Officer for R3 said, “The advent of the CBDC will reshape the financial industry. Both central banks and financial institutions will need to build new systems, and even review the financial system’s operating processes. The related financial innovation cannot rely solely on promotion by the government and the financial industry. As Hong Kong’s largest FinTech community, Cyberport is an important asset in promoting the application of Hong Kong’s Central Bank digital currency. R3 is delighted to establish an innovation lab at Cyberport in order to allow outstanding FinTech start-ups and the wider enterprise community to better grasp blockchain and confidential computing technologies, while providing them with convenient tools to develop more advanced CBDC-related applications and other blockchain technology applications.” 

“It is also very exciting to see yet another traditional financial institution make the move to transform their business through blockchain technology. Following the success of Bank of Thailand’s project Inthanon, which R3 participated in as a technology partner, we can see how explorations of DLT and its potential have helped lay the infrastructure that is instrumental to the building of CBDCs within Asia,” added Amit Ghosh.”

R3 collaborated with Cyberport in as early as 2020 to launch the “Block AdVenture” challenge to help start-ups build on Corda as well as its global Venture Development program for HK’s local technology community. The program offers a variety of resources and support for every stage of the blockchain journey – from office hours, workshops and educational content to access to an ecosystem of over 200 industry experts, mentors and investors.