The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, met the President of Tsinghua University and the Asian Universities Alliance (AUA), Professor Qiu Yong, at Government House at noon today (April 13) and hosted a lunch after the meeting for the 15 heads of the AUA member universities who will attend the annual AUA Summit in Hong Kong. The Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, also attended the lunch.
At the meeting with Professor Qiu, Mrs Lam welcomed further co-operation between Tsinghua University and higher education institutions in Hong Kong, in particular in innovation and technology (I&T) and its application, to contribute jointly to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an international I&T hub. She also thanked him for the arrangement made by Tsinghua University for her to speak at the institution to introduce the latest situation of Hong Kong during her trip to Beijing earlier.
Addressing the lunch, Mrs Lam welcomed the visit of heads of AUA member universities to Hong Kong to attend the AUA Summit 2019 to be held tomorrow (April 14) at AUA member the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which she is also invited to attend. She said that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government highly supports the strengthening of co-operation among universities in Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. The AUA brings together top universities in the region and provides an effective platform to promote various professional exchanges among member universities, enabling the enhancement of the quality of higher education and the capability in technological innovation in the Asian region.
Mrs Lam said that the HKSAR Government is committed to promoting the development of I&T and establishing two world-class research clusters at the Hong Kong Science Park on healthcare technologies and artificial intelligence and robotics technologies. She encouraged the AUA to continue to deepen regional co-operation, including boosting exchanges among scientific researchers and collaboration in scientific research.
Pioneered by Tsinghua University, the AUA was established in Beijing in 2017 with 15 universities from 14 Asian countries and regions.