Motion Debate on "Developing Hong Kong into a regional education hub" (21 June 2006)

MR JAMES TIEN (in Cantonese): Madam President, today, the majority of Members who have expressed their views on this topic have done so from the angle of education, whereas on behalf of the business sector, I wish to express some views on this topic from the business sector's viewpoint and from the angle of the talents needed by society.

Madam President, everyone knows that Hong Kong is an international financial, logistics and tourist hub and in the development of the Mainland, that is, in the 11th Five-Year Plan, it has a very important role to play. From the point of view of the business sector, many undertakings require the assistance of elites. For many years, and in recent years in particular, a lot of people in the business sector have said that it seems the standard of university graduates is on the decline. Of course, universities are saying that this is not the case. As the standard of the students enrolled at universities is on the decline, so it is possible that the standard of graduates is consequently also on the decline. However, I learned that in the past year or so, the standard of university graduates has seen an improvement. As the standard of students enrolled at universities has improved, so the standard of graduates has also improved accordingly.

In this vein, the Government has provided a figure and expressed its concern that, by 2007, there will be a shortfall of nearly 100 000 people who have received higher education but an excess of 230 000 people with lower qualifications and skills. I think the Government really has to do more in this regard. Of course, given that there are so many young people in Hong Kong, will the group of young people who can pursue further studies in universities after graduating from secondary schools help fill the void? The figures in recent years indicate that they cannot. However, we still hold that if they clearly do not possess the required qualities, then they should not be enrolled at universities regardless, thus lowering the standard of universities as well as the standard of future graduates.

Conversely, as suggested by the motion, we can attract students from other places to pursue their studies in Hong Kong and make Hong Kong an education hub. I believe that this suggestion applies not just to students from the Mainland, Taiwan or Macao; we can also attract students from other places, such as Southeast Asian countries or even students from India. India excels in Mathematics and it also has made great achievements in software production. Places such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia can also be considered. If we can attract students from these regions to receive education in Hong Kong, I believe the Government's new measure to increase their proportion from 4% to 10% is certainly desirable. However, as long as the education opportunities of local students are not affected, there is no need to be too inflexible with regard to the proportion of 10%, since it is more desirable than allowing the places to go to waste. In fact, these university places are self-financing in nature and a tuition fee of $60,000 is charged. In sum, the costs incurred are all recovered from them by the universities. If they can afford the tuition fees, I believe they can make great contribution to the Hong Kong economy after graduation.

Madam President, in addition, there is one point I wish to raise and it has been raised before. Since Hong Kong is a small place, is it very important to build student hostels for universities? This is probably not very important. There are still many vacant places in the student residence built by the City University of Hong Kong on Cornwall Street in Kowloon Tong several years ago. However, if we beckon to students from the Mainland to study in Hong Kong, this fact will give them more choices. In fact, they can pursue their studies in many other places, so why should they choose Hong Kong? Finding accommodation in Hong Kong poses a great problem. For non-local students who have no relatives in Hong Kong, it will be very expensive to rent a flat.

Therefore, the Liberal Party supports item (d) of the motion, that is, the Government should implement a concessional policy and require that the land granted be used only for building hostels but not for other purposes. I believe no major controversy over this will be induced in society. Of course, selling the hostels to property developers for development into residential blocks because of low occupancy rates will not be permitted. If a requirement is laid down to prevent the occurrence of such instances, society will give its approval.

In addition, I also wish to raise one point which is not mentioned by other Members, that is, whether non-local students should be allowed to work in Hong Kong after graduation. We think that the present practice can still be improved further, for under the current practice, they can only work in Hong Kong for one year after graduation, and they must be employed by an employer. After that, they have to return to the Mainland and queue up to come here again. A lot of our students studying overseas, for example, in Britain or the United States, are often allowed to take up jobs there immediately if they pursue their studies through to graduation. It is not justified to require them to go back first and queue up to come back again. In this regard, I think that it would be desirable if 10% or 10-odd percent of these graduates can join the workforce in Hong Kong.

Of course, some Honourable colleagues from trade unions may be worried that, in doing so, they will snatch the "rice bowls" of Hong Kong people. However, I believe that in these circumstances, even though the livelihood of Hong Kong people may face competition, we can consider making the pie larger. In the beginning of my speech, I said that there is a shortfall of 100 000 people with a higher level of education but an excess of over 200 000 people with low academic qualifications. If more of such people with higher levels of education can work in Hong Kong, so that employers or the business sector can have a greater pool of talents to hire from, and if all of them are talents in management, then a greater economic pie can be created. In these circumstances, more job opportunities can be created for the 230 000 people with low academic qualifications and low skills in Hong Kong. Therefore, we believe that this will work.

Therefore, Madam President, as the other two Honourable colleagues of the Liberal Party have said, we support this motion. Thank you.