Hong Kong is claiming the high ground in wooing the brightest minds amid its ambition of becoming an international hub for high-caliber talent, education gurus and local lawmakers said as the inaugural edition of a high-level global youth leadership summit opened in the city on Tuesday.
Over 300 elite high school students from 10 regions convened at AsiaWorld-Expo near Hong Kong’s airport for the much-anticipated World Youth Forum (WYF) Future Economics Leadership Summit 2024 & SKT-NEC Global Round (Asia), which will run through Saturday.
“Hong Kong is Asia’s world city, a global financial and technology center, a crossroads of Eastern and Western cultures,” said Houston Hou, founder and CEO of SKT Education Group, a youth literacy education company.
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“I can hardly think of a better choice to hold the WYF given our mission and vision to bring Eastern and Western cultures together, and cultivate the future leaders of finance and technology,” Hou said.
The summit, co-organized by China Daily 21st Century Media and Education, SKT Education Group and the Council for Economic Education (CEE), aims to cultivate future leaders with a global vision and help them navigate the technology-driven economic transformation.
The event dovetails with the nation’s resolve to support Hong Kong in building into an “international hub for high-caliber talent”, announced last month in a resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
According to the big policy meeting, improvements can be expected in mechanisms to see the SAR playing a greater role in China’s opening-up to the outside world.
Tuen Mun District Councilor Kam Man-fung, said the summit holds “huge significance”, as it lets young talent around the world come together, exchanging and exploring unique ideas and thoughts.
“Future economic development lies in the hands of these youngsters from different cultural backgrounds, so providing them with an early chance to communicate their unique thoughts with one another can definitely help,” Kam said.
Students from across the globe — including the Chinese mainland, the SAR, the United States, Canada, India, Pakistan, South Korea, and Thailand — will be immersed in the city’s business and financial sector through numerous activities this week.
Their program includes economic competitions, meetings with big-name financial and technology institutions, and the U20 Young Economist Forum, where they’ll see the influence artificial intelligence wields in shaping the global economy.
“With all of them representing their countries and regions networking with one another and excited to immerse themselves in the Eastern culture in the next few days via this platform, the summit could be said to be a clear testimony to the city’s role as a superconnector bridging the mainland and the rest of the world,” said lawmaker Joephy Chan Wing-yan.
Ben Yip, director and vice-president of the GBA Youth Innovation Entrepreneurship Foundation, described the event as an embodiment of Hong Kong’s hospitality and an excellent example of how the city’s strategic positioning as the international financial center and the East-meets-West center for international cultural exchange can be brought into play when it comes to youth cultivation.
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A student from Pakistan, who is visiting China for the first time, said she is aware of being in a dynamic environment during her time in the city.
“I’ve heard so much about this country and the city because it’s such a huge global phenomenon,” she said.
“You read about it in all of your research, readings about economics, especially topics of the financial impact, the technological impact that China does have as a country, and the city of Hong Kong especially.”
