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Led by the Secretary for Education (SED), Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, a Hong Kong delegation will today (March 15, New York time) continue its duty visit to New York, the United States. The delegates will call at the Teachers College of the Columbia University and the World Education Services.
Earlier Mr Ng met with the Assistant Commissioner, New York State Education Department, Mr Ira Schwartz, to exchange views on various education policies including examination and assessment systems, kindergarten education and curriculum development.
The delegates called at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Cornell Tech in New York City, where they had in-depth exchanges with the management on a variety of issues, including their strategies on internationalisation as well as the development of self-financing post-secondary education and technology projects.
Mr Ng said, "In recent years, Hong Kong has aspired to be a regional education hub and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has made every effort to support the internationalisation and diversification of our post-secondary institutions.
"We have adopted a multi-pronged approach to achieve this goal, such as providing land at nominal premium or premises at nominal rent, offering interest-free start-up loans, supporting research projects, as well as doubling the non-local student quotas of publicly-funded programmes to 20 per cent, providing government scholarships and relaxing employment and immigration restrictions for non-local students and more.
"The efforts made by the HKSAR Government demonstrate its steadfast commitment to nurturing talents for industries and attracting elite people from around the world, including outstanding Hong Kong returnees, boosting Hong Kong's competitiveness and facilitating the long term development of Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta region and the nation as a whole," he said.
Mr Ng also attended a dinner meeting with academics and professionals hosted by the Hong Kong Association of New York.
Other members of the delegation include the Deputy Secretary for Education, Dr Catherine K K Chan; Administrative Assistant to the SED, Mr Kenneth Cheng; Chairman of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) Council, Mr Rock Chen; and Secretary General of the HKEAA, Dr Tong Chong-sze.
Ends/Friday, March 15, 2013
Issued at HKT 12:34
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