For decades, Hong Kong’s economic strength has been based on the free flow of capital, information, and talent, and on its strategic location, worldwide connections, legal system, professional services, and infrastructural facilities.

In addition to its established position in international finance, trade, and logistics, the city is becoming an innovation and technology hub. The 2020 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII), released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, ranks Hong Kong 11th of 131 economies in the world. The city scores highly in six out of seven GII pillars: Institutions, Human Capital & Research, Infrastructure, Market Sophistication, Business Sophistication, and Creative Outputs. Furthermore, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster is ranked as the world’s second-largest science and technology cluster by the GII.

The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) creates tremendous opportunities and offers extensive support to Hong Kong for consolidating its status as an international finance, trade, and transport centre, and as an offshore Renminbi business hub and international centre for asset management. The Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Scheme, launched in September 2021, is one of the key initiatives of the Outline Development Plan. Moreover, to ensure the connectivity of infrastructure, the Task Force for Hong Kong-Shenzhen Co-operation on Cross-Boundary Railway Infrastructure was formed to work on the development of the “GBA on the Rail” framework.

The GBA, with a population of over 86 million and a GDP of approximately US$1.7 trillion, is a strong economic force today and will be a vibrant city cluster tomorrow. Hong Kong’s position in the GBA will allow the city to make a key contribution to the overall development of China. Moreover, embracing economic, social, and livelihood opportunities in the GBA will enable Hong Kong to engage in China’s “dual circulation” development, as a participant in domestic circulation and a facilitator of international circulation. This will serve the dual purposes of leveraging our advantages to boost the growth prospects of Hong Kong and the career prospects of our youth, and contributing to the development of the nation.

In conjunction with cross-jurisdictional coordination and collaboration, specialized manpower and visionary leaders are vitally important for ensuring the effective transformation of the GBA into a world-class innovation hub and centre for emerging industries.

The PolyU Business School is proud to offer world-class education and training covering virtually all aspects of business and management, and its faculty and students are certain to play a role in the development of the GBA and the nation, provided that we remain devoted to continually sharpening our skillsets. This is especially important in the areas of accountancy, digitalization, finance, innovation, leadership, logistics, marketing, data science, operations management, project management, quality management, risk management, and supply chain management.

In this issue, themed “Nurturing Talent for the GBA and Beyond”, we look at our education – how we ensure its relevance by constantly updating the curriculum and enriching students’ learning experiences, and how we prepare students for regional and global development. An alumnus, Dr Renwei Zeng, tells the story of developing his training institute and shares with us the keys to business success.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue! I wish you a prosperous new year.