Boosting Hong Kong’s leading position in FinTech
PolyU collaborates with industry to develop financial technology
FinTech has transformed financial services globally. The challenges and opportunities that accompany this revolution are extremely significant to Hong Kong’s burgeoning financial sector, which currently contributes 18% of its GDP. The government is also determined to further develop Hong Kong into a regional FinTech hub, building on its historical and strategic position in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
A pioneering development contributing to this strategy is the AMTD FinTech Centre at PolyU’s Faculty of Business. Launched in April 2018, the FinTech Centre is a joint project of PolyU, the AMTD Group and the AMTD Foundation, the first university-industry collaboration in this area. The combined strengths of AMTD and PolyU will further confirm Hong Kong’s leading role in FinTech-related research, education, marketing, system development and applications.
AMTD is a market-leading, Hong Kong-based global financial institution with an extensive cross-border capability in Asia that is known worldwide for its focus on innovation and the shared economy, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and FinTech. At the launch of the FinTech Centre on 19 April 2018, Mr Calvin Choi, Chairman and President of the AMTD Group, commented that “AMTD has always been committed to promoting the long-term development of FinTech in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and across the globe, with particular emphasis on talent cultivation.”
AMTD’s presence in the financial sector is complemented by PolyU’s commitment to nurturing talents and developing innovation and pioneering research. The FinTech Centre will focus on research, consultancy and training projects for the financial industry, and will provide support to start-ups, facilitate collaboration among experts and offer FinTech education for students, financial professionals and the public. It will bring together experts from disciplines at PolyU including computing, engineering and applied mathematics, in addition to those from the business disciplines of accounting, finance, management, marketing, logistics and transport.
The AMTD Group and the AMTD Foundation will support the long-term education and research output of the Centre, not only through their industry experts but also with their extensive resources, thus ensuring the further technological development of Hong Kong’s financial sector.
Through the Centre, the University will extend its portfolio of taught postgraduate programmes into the key strategic areas of “Knowledge Transfer” and “Engaging the Nation”. With those areas already in mind, soon after its launch, the FinTech Centre signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangzhou Venture Capital College and Guangzhou Science and the Technology Finance Comprehensive Service Center. The Faculty of Business also plans to offer a new interdisciplinary part-time Doctor of FinTech programme starting in the 2019/20 academic year.
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Publishing date: December 2019
