HONG KONG, Dec. 23 -- Hong Kong's spending on research and development (R&D) rose 8.4 percent year on year in 2024 amid its sci-tech push, local data showed on Tuesday.

Total R&D expenditure stood at 35.772 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 4.599 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to a report released by the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

The ratio of R&D expenditure to gross domestic product increased from 1.11 percent in 2023 to 1.13 percent in 2024, while the number of R&D personnel hit 47,210, up from 43,403 in 2023, the data showed.

The HKSAR government has rolled out a raft of measures to foster a local ecosystem of sci-tech innovation that encourages research, application and industrial use.