The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, met with the Minister of Education, Mr Huai Jinpeng, by video conferencing today (September 1). He stressed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government will proactively promote education exchanges and co-operation between the Mainland and Hong Kong with an aim to integrate into the overall development of the country. The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, also attended the meeting.

     Speaking at the meeting, Mr Lee said that Hong Kong and the Mainland have achieved good progress in tertiary education co-operation, especially in areas such as co-operative education, student exchanges and collaboration on research and development.

     He said, "The HKSAR Government has all along been supportive of Hong Kong's tertiary institutions in seizing the opportunities arisen from the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). We will continue to proactively participate in and promote higher education co-operation in the GBA, and assist Hong Kong's tertiary institutions in coming up with more flexible and innovative operation modes to facilitate stronger co-operation among their campuses in Hong Kong and GBA cities and better flow of teaching staff and students, striving to nurture talents to meet the need of the national development."

     This morning, Mr Lee delivered a video speech at the opening ceremony of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). The university is the first tertiary institution co-operated by the Mainland and Hong Kong since the promulgation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2019, signifying a new milestone in developing an education and talents hub for in the GBA.

     Mr Lee, also attended the opening ceremony of Minxin Hong Kong School in Nansha, Guangzhou, in the form of video conferencing through pre-recording today. He noted that the school, adopting Hong Kong curriculum from primary and secondary education in a 12-year through-train mode, aims to cultivate the next generation for having a broad mind of "roots in Hong Kong, a heart for China, a global perspective".

     With the country's 14th Five-Year Plan and the GBA development, he expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Education (MoE) for supporting Hong Kong's school sponsoring bodies to set up schools offering Hong Kong curriculum in the GBA, providing children of Hong Kong people with through-train primary-cum-secondary education services. Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government also fully supports school sponsoring bodies in the Mainland to establish schools offering Mainland curriculum in Hong Kong.

     At the meeting, Mr Lee said, "Looking ahead, in order to guide the younger generation to grasp the opportunities under the country's rapid development, to leverage Hong Kong's unique advantage as a world city that implements the 'one country, two systems' principle under national development strategies such as the 14th Five-Year Plan, the GBA development and the Belt and Road Initiative, the HKSAR Government will continue to work closely with MoE to assist Hong Kong youth in understanding the development trend of our country and the rest of the world and enhancing their national pride and sense of being the masters."

     Mr Lee also, in particular, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Central Government for actively liaising with co-ordinating among relevant Mainland authorities and offering facilitation arrangement for Hong Kong students who pursuing further studies in Mainland, after learning about their difficulties in seeking to enter the Mainland under quotas. Multi-pronged measures were then put in place for these students to depart for studying in the Mainland via air or land boundary control points, easing their demand in the shortest time.

     He reiterated that, under "one country, two systems", the HKSAR Government will strengthen young people's understanding of the development trend of the country and the rest of the world, nurturing them to be talents who have both integrity, competence and love for both the country and Hong Kong to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the city and the country.

Ends/Thursday, September 1, 2022
Issued at HKT 21:51

NNNN