On July 10, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Vice President Dongxiao ZHANG attended the 2020 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance. The virtual meeting featured their 4^th Annual Meeting and Presidents’ Forum, which featured more than 30 leaders from relevant government offices across the Greater Bay Area & universities.

It is the first time the alliance has held its annual meeting online. The theme of this year’s meeting was ‘Marching Forward Amidst Difficulties.’ This year’s presidents’ forum was composed of two parts. Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) vice-chancellor and president Rocky TUAN chaired the first part. It was themed around ‘how the alliance continues to promote collaborative innovation in the GBA during the post-pandemic period.’ The theme of the second part, chaired by the University of Macau (UM) Rector Yonghua SONG, was ‘how the alliance continues to promote educational development in the GBA during the post-pandemic period.’

SUSTech Vice President Dongxiao ZHANG analyzed how the University Alliance should further integrate the GBA resources. They should jointly promote mutually beneficial education and the free flow of innovation in areas such as talent, capital, information, and technology. He added that universities should take full advantage of their fundamental research foundations to maintain their innovative nature. They should keep their communication and cooperative lines open with scientific research institutes and enterprises. He suggested that all the member universities should build more platforms to connect with enterprises for industry-university research cooperation that promotes talent training and flow. Extensive industry-university interactions will further accelerate the forward-looking construction of emerging engineering, new medicine, and new liberal arts disciplines.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance was established in November 2016 as a higher education platform. It aspires to extend the current efforts of elite universities in promoting academic cooperation in the three regions. So far, 40 universities have joined the alliance, including 24 in Guangdong Province, 9 in Hong Kong SAR, and 7 in Macau SAR.