CityUHK Council Chairman leads delegation to Jiangsu to deepen innovation and finance collaboration
Professor the Honourable Michael Ngai, Chairman of the Council of City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), led a delegation to Nanjing and Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province from 4 to 6 August. The delegation met government departments, higher education institutions and industry representatives to explore research commercialisation and financing for innovation and technology projects, and to deepen collaboration between Jiangsu and Hong Kong in education, technology and talent development. The delegation included Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise); Professor Johnny Ho Chung-yin, Associate Vice-President (Enterprise); and Ms Phoebe Tang On-ting, Senior Manager of the Office of the Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise).
In Nanjing, the delegation called on Mr Li Zhongjun, Mayor of the Nanjing Municipal People's Government; Professor Tan Tieniu, Party Secretary of Nanjing University; and Mr Wu Xiaocheng, Party Secretary of Southeast University, to discuss deepening collaboration among government, industry, academia and research, and in higher education. CityUHK and Nanjing University have continued to strengthen their partnership since signing a strategic cooperation agreement in 2024, and last year signed a memorandum of understanding on carbon neutrality. CityUHK has also maintained long-standing and in-depth collaboration with Southeast University in information technology, particularly 6G communications technology. In Yangzhou, the delegation met Mr Wang Jinjian, Secretary of the Yangzhou Municipal Committee, and Mr Zheng Haitao, Deputy Secretary of the Yangzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of the Yangzhou Municipal People's Government, and held discussions with Mr Gong Haibin, Executive Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Commission of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, exchanging views on coordinated development in education, technology, talent and finance.
A highlight of the visit was the Yangzhou Innovation and Finance Matching Conference, themed "Setting Sail to Pool Wisdom for the Future", which brought together more than 100 officials from the Jiangsu provincial and Yangzhou municipal governments, representatives of financial institutions, and academics and start-up representatives from Hong Kong's higher education institutions. The conference sought to connect innovation and technology projects in Jiangsu and Hong Kong with capital, promote deeper industry-academia-research integration, and help enterprises in Jiangsu broaden their financing channels and tap international resources. Research teams and start-ups from CityUHK and several other universities gave roadshow presentations, showcasing their cutting-edge technologies and commercial potential.
Speaking at the conference, Professor Ngai said, "Universities in Hong Kong have become distinctive value converters within the global innovation and technology ecosystem. CityUHK is pleased to put these unique strengths to work and to serve as a bridge between Jiangsu and Hong Kong. We warmly welcome industry partners to set up research centres in Hong Kong, drawing on CityUHK's strengths in basic research and in bringing together international research talent, and on our deep research capabilities and talent base, to provide technological support for enterprises in Jiangsu as they go global. We look forward to both places taking this conference as an opportunity to deepen collaboration further in technology transfer and research commercialisation."
Launched in 2021, HK Tech 300, CityUHK's flagship innovation and entrepreneurship programme, has nurtured more than 1,000 start-ups. The programme fosters innovation through competition: its HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition has expanded to 16 cities on the Chinese Mainland, while the programme has built close partnerships with 11 universities and five local chambers of commerce and start-up organisations across nine countries and cities in Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. Professor Ngai added that CityUHK, which is placed in the top 100 in all four major international university rankings and has been named the "Most International University in the World" by Times Higher Education (THE) for three consecutive years, combines an international research outlook with a solid foundation in translating research into industry applications. Drawing on the University's innovation and technology ecosystem, it offers enterprises support in technology transfer, business incubation and resource coordination across the two places, and draws on Hong Kong's strengths as an international innovation and technology hub to help innovation and technology enterprises in Jiangsu go global.
CityUHK is committed to establishing partnerships with world-renowned universities and institutions to promote academic and research collaboration. For more information about CityUHK's global partnerships, please visit our thematic website.