Our Hong Kong Foundation’s suggestion would mean tripling an endowment fund to incentivise high-level research
YINGKIT.LAI@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 December, 2015, 1:13pm
UPDATED : Monday, 28 December, 2015, 1:13pm
The think tank’s Edwin Cheung (left) at an event in Wan Chai promoting innovation in technology. Photo: Edmond So
A think tank’s proposal that government triple an endowment fund for local universities to boost the city’s research capabilities seeks to encourage more young people to go into innovation and technology.
Our Hong Kong Foundation suggested that an additional HK$50 billion be injected into the Research Grants Council’s fund, currently valued at HK$23 billion. The think tank was founded by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Edwin Cheung, a senior researcher at the think tank, said the plan could help the city diversify its economy beyond finance and property. He said increasing government capital input into innovation and technology research by universities would then encourage the private sector to follow suit.
“An unchanging economy will not be beneficial to Hong Kong over the long term,” he said today during a Metro Radio talk show.
“Many studies show that more input into research and development can considerably expand the economy and especially offer upward mobility to young people,” he added.
Cheung said he hoped the proposal could make technology-related subjects at university more appealing to top-notch secondary school leavers, who were now mostly pursuing medicine or finance.
READ MORE: Hong Kong must embrace innovation or die, warn experts at SCMP forum
The think tank also proposed that higher education authorities review the mechanism for assessing university performance, which it said attached too much importance to academic publications.
He said the group also hoped academics could focus more on the impact of their research on the economy, society and culture.
Tax incentives and research subsidies should be provided for the private sector to encourage investment in areas deemed critical to the social and economic development of Hong Kong or in areas where the city had achieved research excellence, it suggested.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1895508/hong-kong-think-tank-urges-hk50-billion-more-universities
