HK hailed as hub for high-caliber talent

Hong Kong is successfully wooing the brightest minds in its bid to become an international hub for high-caliber talent, education experts 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 World Youth Forum Future Economics Leadership Summit 2024 and 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 company that provides youth literacy education.

"I can hardly think of a better choice to hold the World Youth Forum given our mission and vision to bring Eastern and Western cultures together, and cultivate the future leaders of finance and technology."

The summit, co-organized by China Daily 21st Century Media and Education, SKT and the Council for Economic Education, 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, announced last month in a resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to support Hong Kong in building itself into an "international hub for high-caliber talent".

According to the policy meeting, improved mechanisms will see Hong Kong play 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, Hong Kong, 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 that 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 an international financial center and the East-meets-West center for international cultural exchange can be brought into play when it comes to youth cultivation.