PolyU provides “Tanzania Leadership Programme” to nurture talents for Belt & Road region

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today launched a leadership programme for 100 Tanzania's young professionals from various sectors. The first batch of 30 Tanzanian young professionals will attend a one-week programme consisting of expert lectures, field visits in Hong Kong and Shenzhen as well as knowledge sharing sessions, focusing on areas crucial for Tanzania's development, namely: green manufacturing, urban planning, information technology for international trade, tourism, and public health. The Tanzania Leadership Programme is organised by PolyU's Institute of Advanced Executive Education.

PolyUlaunched the Belt and Road Cross-Professional Advancement Programme in January 2019, providing a platform for Hong Kong's professionals and Mainland enterprise leaders to exchange knowledge and share experience, as well as to network, explore market opportunities and develop multilateral collaborations. The University also aims to leverage its expertise to share best practices and experiences with the high-potential future leaders of other Belt and Road countries such as Tanzania.

The opening ceremony of the Programme was officiated by Mr Mbelwa KAIRUKI, Ambassador of United Republic of Tanzania in People's Republic of China,and Dr Miranda LOU, Executive Vice President of PolyU.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Lou said, "PolyU has been playing its role to nurture young talents for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since 2014. We have established a platform to leverage PolyU's expertise and international network for capacity building, and thereby fostering talent development, knowledge transfer and research development for the sustainable advancement of the Belt and Road countries. This Programme is another PolyU's initiative to offer cross-cultural youth leadership programmes to Tanzania future global leaders."

She added that there were more than 700 students from the Belt and Road countries last year in PolyU, some of them were from Africa. Apart from academic programmes, PolyU also supports enterprises and professionals to embrace the opportunities arising from the BRI. Since 2014, the University has offered more than 390 consultancy services and executive training to organisations from Belt and Road countries.

Tanzania, as one of Africa's fastest growing economies, has its strategic role in the BRI. Mr Kairuki, who flew in Hong Kong to attend the opening, said, "Our country needs such kind of youth with vigour and zeal to make a difference and transform it from where it is to a more prosperous nation. And that starts with learning new ideas and new ways and from new experiences. I saw a need for my country as well to invest in building the capacity of the young and upcoming leaders in various industries. I saw nowhere fit for this than Hong Kong and especially at the Institute of Advance Executive Education and the PolyU."

Under the Programme, the 30 Tanzanian participants will conduct field trips related to the five focused areas of the Programme, such as visiting PolyU's innovative facilities, the City Gallery (displaying the vision for the city's planning projects), Shatin (one of the new towns in Hong Kong that exhibits a success case in town planning), textile upcycling factory (using innovative technologies to provide a solution for textile waste recycling), as well as Huawei Shenzhen Campus (showcasing the emerging tech of a smartphone giant). By the end of the Programme, the young professionals, from varied sectors ranging from telecommunications, information technology, marketing, social enterprise, manufacturing, sustainability, finance, tourism to public health, will also work on action plans for specific areas of development in Tanzania.

The Programme will run in a series, each will cater for a cohort of 30 Tanzanian young professionals. PolyU's Institute of Advanced Executive Education is also planning to extend similar training to other Belt and Road countries.

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