Tech prowess paves the way to a brighter future
Hong Kong’s reunification and integration with the motherland has been intertwined with the nation’s technological achievements, and will make a magnificent story of a bright tech future, says Hong Kong academic Wong Yuk-shan, and leading scientist Chan Ching-chuen.
“Since the handover 23 years ago, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland have been on the fast track of development in terms of scientific research and technological application,” Wong, president of the Open University of Hong Kong, told China Daily.
“China’s meteoric rise as a technology powerhouse is definitely a boon for Hong Kong. Technological advancement cannot go without exchanges and collaboration. In the past two decades, the mutually beneficial cooperation between the mainland and the SAR has been a real eye-opener to the city’s tech circle,” said Wong, who is also a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress and member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee.
Closer ties with the mainland has enabled Hong Kong people to join hands with their mainland peers in a constellation of research projects and reap the rewards of cooperation, he said.
In academic collaboration, Wong noted that many mainland postgraduates have come to the SAR in pursuit of their scientific endeavors, helping to cultivate a deep pool of top-caliber, tech-savvy professionals for the city.
Hong Kong universities have also been heading north, setting up campuses and research centers, particularly in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen campus was established in 2014.
Wong believes innovation and technology will be Hong Kong’s next growth engine that will help the city wean off its years-long over-reliance on traditional industries like financial services and real estate.
With the aim of creating an innovation cluster to rival the likes of the Silicon Valley in the Bay Area, Hong Kong is set to write a new chapter in its development since reunification, he reckoned.
Deeper bilateral collaboration is underway. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology will soon open its campus in Guangzhou, confident of building up a talent pool in interdisciplinary research. The Open University of Hong Kong, according to Wong, will also launch its own campus in Zhaoqing.
“The combination of technology, policy, market and finance is the winning formula for success,” said Chan Ching-chuen, Hong Kong’s first academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
“Hong Kong’s competitive edge lies in finance and universities, but the financial hub has long been restricted by a lack of research centers, a vast market and large enterprises,” said Chan, who also serves as founding president of the World Electric Vehicles Association and an honorary professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Hong Kong.
“This speaks volumes about how Hong Kong and the mainland cities in the Bay Area could draw on each other’s strengths and jointly develop a knowledge-based economy,” he stressed.
Wong said a knowledge-based economy will offer a diversity of occupations for Hong Kong’s young people, who mostly go after plum jobs in the well-paid financial services, healthcare and legal sectors.
“This is totally different from the past. In the 1950s and 1960s, the best graduates of my generation, with simple and pure love for their homeland, a sense of duty and a willingness to serve the country, always sought to work in the science and technology field,” he recalled. “It’s a fairly simple, but society-wide idea to devote our expertise and know-how to the technological advancement of a stronger, more prosperous motherland, without giving much thought to how much we could earn.”
“However, through favorable policies, government initiatives and indepth integration with the mainland, I think this will all change. Our young people will rekindle their interest in innovation and technology, and rediscover their passion for contributing to the motherland,” said Wong.