Xi: HK vital for national sci-tech vision

President Xi Jinping said he supports Hong Kong becoming an international center for innovative science and technology.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark in an instruction released on Monday.

In June, 24 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering who were working in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region wrote a letter to Xi to express their will to contribute to the country and their enthusiasm for developing innovative science and technology.

Xi attached great importance to the letter, made instructions and quickly arranged the relevant works, according to Xinhua News Agency.

In the instructions, Xi stressed promoting scientific cooperation between the SAR and the mainland.

The president also encouraged Hong Kong’s scientific community to contribute to building a strong country of science and technology and fulfill national rejuvenation.

The scientific advantages of the mainland and the SAR should be fully used to develop the economy and improve people’s lives, which is necessary to implement the principle of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, Xi said.

Hong Kong has a great amount of high-quality scientific talent, he said, and they love the country and the SAR. He called them an important force for implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development and building an innovative country.

Hong Kong’s scientific community has made great contributions to the development of the country and Hong Kong, Xi said.

The president attaches great importance to the problems mentioned in the letter of the academicians, saying that they must be resolved in a proper way with concrete measures.

Following Xi’s instructions, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance have had meetings and collected opinions from the Hong Kong scientific community to find measures to address the problems.

The problems mentioned in the academicians’ letter, including the need for increased use of national scientific project funds in Hong Kong and tariff reductions for scientific machines, have been mostly resolved.