Speech by CE at Groundbreaking Ceremony for HKUST Medical Education and Research Complex (English only)(with photographs)
Speech by CE at Groundbreaking Ceremony for HKUST Medical Education and Research Complex (English only)(with photographs)
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Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Medical Education and Research Complex as we speak (April 28):
Honourable Director Zhou Ji (Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)), Deputy Commissioner Li Yongsheng (Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China within the HKSAR), Professor Harry Shum (the Council Chairman of the HKUST), Professor Nancy Ip (the President of the HKUST), distinguished company, women and gents,
Good morning. It’s a terrific pleasure to be right here as we speak for the groundbreaking of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Medical Education and Research Complex. I’m delighted to witness this milestone with you – Hong Kong’s third medical college is now taking form.
The National fifteenth Five-Year Plan helps Hong Kong in changing into a world hub for high-calibre expertise. A brand new medical college will assist flip that imaginative and prescient into actuality, attracting and coaching high expertise in healthcare and greater schooling. It may even contribute to a Healthy China, one of many Five-Year Plan’s key objectives, by deepening collaboration with the Chinese Mainland.
Equally vital, the brand new medical college will guarantee higher high quality, larger effectivity, and greater capability in our healthcare and medical providers. It will enhance native physician coaching, easing manpower shortages. It will assist us meet the challenges of an ageing inhabitants.
Beyond these, HKUST’s medical college will develop in another way from our two present ones. That will create synergy, drive innovation, generate multiplier results, and elevate our medical-education capabilities. Hong Kong is quick rising as a world centre for medical coaching, analysis and innovation. Building a 3rd medical college will get us there that a lot sooner.
We are transferring decisively to convey these advantages to Hong Kong. Last November, I permitted HKUST’s proposal, agreeing in precept to launch a four-year, graduate-entry medical programme. It presents a mixed bachelor of drugs and bachelor of surgical procedure diploma. About 50 college students will make up the primary cohort, beginning within the 2028/29 tutorial yr.
HKUST’s successful bid adopted a rigorous evaluation course of by the Task Group on New Medical School and its knowledgeable advisors. They absolutely recognised HKUST’s modern technique, its monetary dedication and its means to ship.
To flip this choice into actuality, the Government has arrange three working teams underneath the Task Group. The members embody related authorities departments and outdoors consultants, such because the Chairman of the Medical Council of Hong Kong.
These teams will now work with HKUST on each stage of implementation, advising on curriculum, funds and extra. I’m certain HKUST may even work carefully with the Medical Council to finish course accreditation and advance all fronts.
Our purpose is evident: to make sure that the brand new medical college and its educating hospital change into a key pillar of Hong Kong’s medical educating and service system. The Government is backing this dedication with substantial assets. We have put aside funding, on an identical foundation, to help HKUST.
We have additionally reserved land at Ngau Tam Mei within the Northern Metropolis. That land is for the medical college’s everlasting campus and an built-in hospital of medical schooling, analysis and patient-care. We may even work with HKUST on the event and operational mannequin for the brand new hospital.
Today’s groundbreaking ceremony, right here at the Clear Water Bay campus, is a tangible step ahead. The eight-storey complicated will rise as one of many core amenities of the medical college. It is scheduled for completion in mid‑2028, simply in time to welcome the primary cohort of scholars. It will help the varsity’s phased growth, and its technology-enabled educating, for years to come back.
Ladies and gents, I’ve each confidence in HKUST. It enjoys an excellent worldwide repute in science and life sciences, in addition to engineering and enterprise. The new medical college will take full benefit of those formidable strengths to create its personal medical schooling and analysis foundations.
It will nurture a brand new technology of medical doctors with skilled experience, technological command, a worldwide perspective, and a patient-centred philosophy. It will elevate Hong Kong’s analysis and medical-education capabilities.
This is the long run we’re constructing – for Hong Kong, and for each affected person who will at some point be healed by the medical doctors skilled right here. Let’s construct it collectively. Thank you.
Ends/Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Issued at HKT 10:15
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