Ten to 20 more companies are set to establish or expand operations in Hong Kong, including leading drug makers and a semiconductor business, with a roughly equal number of mainland Chinese and overseas firms, the head of a government investment office has said.

Peter Yan King-shun, director general of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), a government body under the Financial Secretary’s Office, offered a preview of the developments on Sunday, with details of the next batch of firms setting up in the city to be announced on Thursday.

Yan said the companies included several industry leaders with substantial market valuations. He expected the roughly equal split between mainland and overseas firms to continue, although maintaining the ratio was not an explicit recruitment target. Five of the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies have already established a presence in Hong Kong.

Yan said the incoming firms would include more drug makers from that group, which would conduct clinical trials and develop new medicines.

“We are not in a rush, because we now have the conditions to give ourselves time to work out clearly what substantive activities they will carry out after establishing themselves in Hong Kong,” he told a radio programme on Sunday.

The office wanted pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the city’s industrial development, rather than simply sell medicines, he added.

Successful projects had encouraged competitors to explore opportunities in Hong Kong, with some concerned about falling behind.

“When the first, second and third successful cases emerge, others worried about missing out and became more proactive in approaching us,” Yan said.

The office would also step up efforts to attract semiconductor and advanced manufacturing businesses, he added.

Yan said a leading global company among the incoming batch had brought suppliers and other related businesses to cities where it had previously invested, and Hong Kong hoped to reap similar benefits.

But he also stressed that company size, investment amounts and job creation were not the only considerations in selecting businesses.

He said the office had been in talks with more than 100 companies and would become increasingly selective, as a key consideration was whether a business could facilitate the development of the city’s strategic industries.

“More importantly, it is about aligning with our industrial policies, helping develop our industrial ecosystem and accelerating the implementation of those policies,” he said.

Strategic enterprises were required to submit five-year plans detailing their proposed investments and job creation numbers, with more specific information required for the first year and the first three years. The office also placed particular emphasis on companies identifying their first flagship project in the city.

Asked whether firms should face penalties for failing to deliver results, Yan said there was little need for a separate punishment mechanism, as government funding schemes already required recipients to meet targets or commit their own funds before receiving matching support.

“For most strategic enterprises establishing themselves in Hong Kong, government subsidies are not their main incentive,” he said, adding that access to talent, financing and international markets was also a key attraction.

Yan said more than 40 per cent of the over 120 strategic enterprises already established in Hong Kong had premises in traditional commercial districts.

The Northern Metropolis development gave them more options, including sites in Hung Shui Kiu and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop. He expected strategic enterprises to take part in future tenders as more sites became available.