Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the Northern Metropolis university town initiative aims to attract top global scholars and high-calibre talent to Hong Kong, aligning with the city's newly launched First Five-Year Plan.
Speaking at the Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit today, Lee highlighted that Hong Kong boasts five of the world's top 100 universities, with students from more than 100 countries and regions and about 70 percent of academic staff from outside Hong Kong.
He emphasized that under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong maintains its common law system, academic freedom, and the free flow of people, capital, ideas, and information.
As the core of Hong Kong's future development, the Northern Metropolis will feature three university towns—at San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu, and Ta Kwu Ling. Together with surrounding technology, industrial, and residential zones, the overall development will exceed 1,000 hectares, including approximately 300 hectares dedicated strictly to campus areas.
The three hubs will each have a distinct strategic focus, ranging from medicine, life and health technology, and AI at San Tin, to smart manufacturing at Hung Shui Kiu, and arts alongside "blue-green" sustainability elements at Ta Kwu Ling.
Lee invited global institutions to establish foundational research institutes and large-scale shared research platforms, such as high-performance computing centers, joint laboratories, and interdisciplinary research centers.
He also encouraged strong collaboration between university staff and enterprises to reinforce the synergy among industry, academia, and research.
