MOU will enhance collaboration between CityU and Huizhou Municipal People's Government
Emily Law
A memorandum of understanding signed between City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Huizhou Municipal People's Government for CityU’s Huizhou Project (the Project) on 6 February will enhance academic and research collaboration.
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, has previously stated that the development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Bay Area (Bay Area) would be a focus for future collaboration between the three places. The Project echoes calls by the Government of the People's Republic of China and HKSAR Government to develop the Bay Area, by establishing a new model for deepening collaboration with the mainland in areas of technology, research and education.
Professor Way Kuo, CityU President, and Mr Mai Jiaomeng, Deputy Municipal Committee Secretary and Mayor of Huizhou Municipal People's Government, signed the memorandum during a ceremony in Huizhou.
Members of the CityU delegation attending the ceremony included Professor Alex Jen Kwan-yue, Provost, Professor Lu Jian, Vice-President (Research and Technology), Mr Sunny Lee Wai-kwong, Vice-President (Administration), Professor Paul Lam Kwan-sing, Chief-of-Staff, Professor Li Duan, Associate Provost (Strategic Planning), and Dr Yeung Kin-man, CityU’s Honorary Doctor and Co-Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the CityU Foundation.
Representatives from Huizhou Municipal People's Government were Mr Chen Yiwei, Municipal Committee Secretary and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Huizhou Municipal People's Congress, Mr Hu Jianbin, Municipal Standing Committee Member and Executive Vice Mayor, Mr Xu Yunshu, Municipal Standing Committee Member and Secretary-General, and Mr Yu Jinfu, Vice Mayor.
Mr Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of the HKSAR Government, also witnessed the signing of the memorandum.
Professor Kuo said that the collaboration with Huizhou Municipal People's Government aligned with one of the five major themes in CityU’s Strategic Plan 2015–2020, namely the enhancement of knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship.
“CityU will work closely with Huizhou Municipal People's Government, industry and institutions to establish multilateral and interdisciplinary collaborations that promote teaching, research, innovation and knowledge transfer so as to help Huizhou develop into an innovation centre for science and technology education," he said.
Mr Chen said that the collaboration between Huizhou and CityU bore great significance for innovation and development, as well as for the Bay Area as a whole.
Huizhou was an important city in the Bay Area that had experienced rapid developments in recent years, and that possessed outstanding industry, he added.
Huizhou and Hong Kong had collaborated closely in many areas and this effort had helped nurture talent in Huizhou and contributed to the development of the Bay Area, Mr Chen said. He praised CityU for developing into a world-renowned university that had performed strongly in international rankings and had achieved excellence in many academic fields.
The Project will provide postgraduate programmes offered by CityU and the Harbin Institute of Technology; facilitate research and knowledge transfer activities and set up a veterinary diagnostic laboratory as well as food safety laboratory in view of the great demand for veterinary medicine and food safety in Guangdong Province.
The Project is located at the Tonghu Ecological Intelligent Zone, which has been designated as Guangdong’s high-end innovation hub.