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The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin (HKETO, Berlin) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) hosted at its new office in Berlin a luncheon presentation on October 20 (Berlin time) for a delegation from Hong Kong headed by Professor TC Pong, Academic Research Advisor of the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the University Grants Committee, to promote higher education in Hong Kong and in particular, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (the Scheme).
In his welcoming remarks, Mr Stephen Wong, Director of HKETO, Berlin, said "The HKSAR Government has been attaching great importance to education. As announced by our Chief Executive in the Policy Address last week, education is the largest single expenditure item in our budget, representing over 20% of total government recurrent expenditure. Our Government will continue to allocate resources to provide quality and diversified education and actively promote the internationalisation of our higher education sector to attract talents from all over the world, positioning Hong Kong as a regional education hub."
Professor Pong pointed out during his presentation that the unique "One Country, Two Systems" principle has provided Hong Kong with the sound fundamentals for economic and social development. Located conveniently in the Pearl River Delta region, Hong Kong has direct access to an enviable market with a population of over 28 million people. On the higher education sector, he stressed the high degree of institutional autonomy and academic freedom enjoyed by our institutions, enabling them to carry out a wide spectrum of researches independently.
"Our universities host some of Asia's ¡V and the world's ¡V best research facilities and programmes, from world-class business management programmes to pioneering research in areas such as medicine, Chinese medicine, China studies, telecommunications, biotechnology and environmental studies," said Professor Pong.
Academics and administrative representatives, from leading universities in Berlin, as well as other education institutions in Germany and the media attended the presentation. The feedback was encouraging and certain universities expressed interest to further explore with RGC and universities in Hong Kong the ways forward in fostering partnership and promoting the Scheme to their students.
Apart from the luncheon presentation, Professor Pong also joined Mr Wong in an interview with a local television station, TV. Berlin on its morning programme "Frˆ¢hcafe" to talk about Hong Kong's efforts in promoting its education services, one of the six new industries marked out for further development. Professor Pong, together with Professor Yu Huang from Hong Kong Baptist University, also responded to questions raised by the media at the conclusion of the presentation.
Higher Education in Hong Kong and the Scheme
Hong Kong is a regional education hub, which houses many top universities in the region. Five among the eight publicly-funded institutions in Hong Kong rank among the top 200 in the World University Rankings by QS in 2010, and among them, three of them are in the top 50.
In line with the objective of the Hong Kong Government as set out in the Policy Address, the Scheme aims at attracting the best and brightest students in the world to pursue their PhD studies in Hong Kong's institutions. In return, overseas students would have the opportunity to study, work and live in Hong Kong, Asia's world city, where there is a unique and vibrant mix of western and eastern cultures.
The Scheme provides a monthly stipend of about EUR 2,000 together with conference and research-related travel allowance of about EUR 1,000 per year, for a period of three years. The Scheme, which is now in its second year, is inviting applications from outstanding students from all corners of the world. Deadline for submitting initial applications is on December 1. Applicants are also required to submit detailed applications for PhD programmes to the relevant Hong Kong higher education institutions. More information about the Scheme can be found at www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/hkphd/hkphd.htm
About Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin
HKETO, Berlin is HKSAR Government's first overseas representative office established since Hong Kong's Reunification in 1997. It is the official HKSAR Government representative in commercial relations and other economic and trade matters in Germany, as well as in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. HKETO, Berlin can be contacted at cee@hketoberlin.gov.hk and by telephone at +4930 2266 77228. More information can be found at www.hketoberlin.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, October 22, 2010
Issued at HKT 02:58
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