RILS scholar wins the Research Team of the Year Award in the 2022 RICS Awards Hong Kong

The research team led by Prof. Geoffrey Qiping SHEN, member of RILS and Chair Professor of Construction Management from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), has won the Research Team of the Year Award in the 2022 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards Hong Kong. 

Since Year 2019, the research team has been working closely with the Qianhai Authority to comprehensively improve the level of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation in the construction sector. The team has proposed solutions to problems encountered in cross-regional collaboration of the construction industry in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). As an achievement, the team successfully drafted two sets of record-filing measures, named as "Administrative Measures for the Registration of Hong Kong Construction Organisations in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone" and "Administrative Measures for the Registration of Hong Kong Construction Professionals in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone". These two measures have been enforced by the Qianhai Authority. As of 18 November 2022, 409 Hong Kong-based professionals and 45 Hong Kong-based organisations had completed their filings in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone.

The implementation of the two measures helps break down the qualification barriers in the construction sector of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, a move that was praised by the former Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government, Mrs Carrie LAM, during the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperation Meeting 2021. In July 2021, the administrative measure was listed as one of the 47 innovative measures and practices by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be promoted nationwide.

Contribution by the research team in promoting collaboration in the construction sector in the GBA has been highly recognized by the RICS Hong Kong. The prestigious Research Team of the Year award represents the team’s outstanding achievements to the built environment, which will inspire the team to continue contributing to cross-regional collaboration in the GBA development.