CUHK welcomes Five-Year Plan, backs Northern Metropolis University Town

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) welcomed Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2026-2030) and the 2026 Policy Address delivered by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Wednesday (Sep16).

CUHK said the five-year plan sets out a roadmap for Hong Kong’s long-term development, including the Northern Metropolis University Town and the city’s development as an international innovation and technology (I&T) center and talent hub.

CUHK Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming welcomed the Government’s plans for the Northern Metropolis, including the upgrade of the Working Group on Planning and Construction of the University Town to a committee to oversee its construction and development.

He said measures including technology transfer funding, accelerators and incubators would support I&T development and collaboration between academia, industry and research institutions.

CUHK supports the development of university towns in San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling under the “One Town, Five Elements” concept, covering education, technology, industry, talent and urban development.

The Northern Metropolis University Town will cover more than 1,000 hectares and is expected to promote interdisciplinary research, international exchange and academia-industry-research collaboration, CUHK said.

Lo also welcomed measures to expand post-secondary education, including an increase of around 30 percent in UGC-funded research postgraduate places, an expansion of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme to 550 places, and HK$40 million per academic year to promote the use of AI and emerging technologies in higher education.

CUHK also supports the University Technology Start-up Support Scheme, the Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus (RAISe+) Scheme and an additional HK$20 million for knowledge transfer.

Meanwhile, CUHK welcomed measures to support deep-space exploration and commercial space technology development.

Lo said CUHK has contributed to projects including the launch of the AI satellite CUHK Sat-1, China’s Tianwen-3 Mars mission and national Antarctic scientific expeditions.

The Centre for Perceptual and Interactive Intelligence (CPII), an InnoHK research center at CUHK, has also partnered with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) for the third consecutive year to provide real-time AI-generated captions for the live broadcast of the Policy Address.

A CUHK team also developed Hong Kong’s first pre-tertiary AI curriculum, which was adopted by the Education Bureau as part of the mainstream secondary school curriculum in the 2023/24 academic year.

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