Potential hotbed for top IT talent

The new Guangzhou campus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology can be a breeding ground for high-end innovation and technology talent with patriotic and global vision, says Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.

Officiating at the campus inauguration ceremony through teleconference, Lee said it is the first higher education institution jointly operated by Hong Kong and the mainland that has been granted approval by the Ministry of Education since the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area was announced in 2019.

The campus in Nansha district offers 15 postgraduate degrees, including advanced materials science, data science, smart manufacturing and microelectronics.

Lee listed out three hopes for the institution. First, to make Hong Kong an intersection for exchange and cooperation with the rest of the world. Second, to strengthen the nation's strategic technological prowess under the 14th Five-Year Plan. And third, to instill love for the nation and for Hong Kong, as well as a global vision, in the next generation.

The development plan supports the establishment of an international education hub in the bay area, he added. Lee said that the establishment of the campus is also one of the first items rolled out under the central government's Nansha Plan - a development initiative for cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau - adding that he believes the new campus will open "a new chapter" for Guangdong-Hong Kong relations.

Last month the new campus received 3,000 applications for 15 masters and PhD programs.

Lee also officiated the opening of Minxin School in Guangzhou yesterday.

The school's founder, former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, said at the ceremony that Minxin is a "breakthrough" for it is the first nonprofit mainland secondary school designated for children of Hongkongers.

Leung said the "Hong Kong-style international community in Nansha" is a place where Hongkongers can live and work comfortably. And the school would solve the issue of children of HKUST Guangzhou teaching staff not being able to keep up with a different education system.

"The simultaneous opening of the two campuses is a landmark achievement of the cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong and a testament to the nation's continued economic reform," he said.

Hong Kong will have to go through a "break-in period" before it can integrate itself into China's developmental goals and that both sides will have to be "brave and determined," Leung said.

"Any country's future depends on the quality of education received by the next generation. Running the Guangzhou campus isn't simple or easy and neither is running Minxin School as a nonprofit community for Hong Kong people."

cjames.lee@singtaonewscorp.com