Meeting with Hong Kong university students in Beijing

Last Sunday (July 12), I met and chatted with more than 20 local university students participating in a new media internship programme in Beijing. Launched by the Hong Kong United Foundation and the Hong Kong Information Technology Joint Council, the programme offers each participant a two-week internship placement in one of over 10 leading Internet and technology enterprises in the Mainland including Tencent, Sina and Sohu. I asked the students if it was the first time that they had been to Beijing, almost half of them said yes. They were eager to see for themselves the development of information and technology in the Mainland during the internships. For those students planning to start a business, they hoped to get some ideas by undergoing internships with Mainland enterprises.

To encourage the students, I told them that I would have been glad to change places with them and become a teenage student again if I could. You probably wonder why.

When I was 20 years old, our country's economy was not as well developed as it is now and its scale was much smaller then. Today, the rapid development of the Mainland economy and, in particular, the development of Internet+ vigorously promoted by the Central Authorities offer great opportunities for Hong Kong's young people.

Being young is an advantage, and being part of China is Hong Kong's edge. While Hong Kong enjoys the advantages of both "One Country" and "Two Systems", our young people, being biliterate and trilingual and familiar with both Eastern and Western cultures, will have no shortage of opportunities for their own development in future.

July 19, 2015