A senior-level delegation led by Mr Xiao Yafei, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee and Secretary of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee, visited City University of Hong Kong (CityU) on 25 October. They were warmly welcomed by Mr Lester Garson Huang, CityU Council Chairman, Professor Freddy Boey Yin Chiang, President, Professor Kevin Downing, Secretary to the Council, and Professor Lu Chun, Vice-President (Mainland Strategy). A meeting was arranged for both parties to exchange ideas on expediting the establishment of CityU (Dongguan).

Other members of the delegation included Mr Zheng Guohong, Deputy Director of the Dongguan Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee and Director of the University Preparation Office of the Dongguan Municipality; Ms Li Jun, Deputy Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People’s Government; Mr Huang Qiaofa, Secretary-General of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee; Ms Huang Huihong, Director of the Dongguan Taiwan Hong Kong Macao Affairs Bureau; and Mr Feng Weimin, Deputy Director of the University Preparation Office of the Dongguan Municipality. 

Mr Huang expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Dongguan Municipal People’s Government for its staunch support for the CityU (Dongguan) project. “We believe that with the continued support of the leadership in the Dongguan Municipal People’s Government, CityU (Dongguan) will be able to establish benchmark status for cooperation between universities in Hong Kong and the Mainland,” he said. He added that CityU would further coordinate various world-class quality educational resources to support CityU (Dongguan) to incorporate an international education philosophy, set up an innovative academic structure, plan academic programmes and adopt appropriate pedagogy to ensure its education quality. 

Secretary Xiao said that Dongguan City has been working closely with City University of Hong Kong on the collaborative project for the establishment of City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), which has made significant progress and has received substantial attention and support from the Ministry of Education and the Hong Kong SAR government. As City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) has now reached a critical stage in its development, he said he hoped that City University of Hong Kong would arrange more academic staff and provide more teaching and learning support to help City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) get well prepared to attract outstanding students to apply for admission. 

For its part, Dongguan City will continue to work hard to ensure the establishment of City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) is on track. It will also expedite the construction of the second phase of the campus and fully support City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)’s development into a world-class university. Furthermore, to align with the development needs of Dongguan City, the Dongguan Municipal Government will support the introduction of City University of Hong Kong’s innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives and make them a special feature of City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan).  

President Boey thanked Secretary Xiao for leading the delegation to visit CityU, and he took the opportunity to introduce CityU’s newly established Academy of Innovation. “With a focus on ‘Deep Tech’ innovation and entrepreneurship, the Academy aims to set up a top-notch international ecosystem to nurture young entrepreneurs and ‘Deep Tech’ start-ups, and promote collaboration between universities and industry,” he said.