“THE building of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Pilot Demonstration Area of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (also called the building of “two areas”), at the end of the day, is all about the competition for talent,” said Li Qingquan, president of Shenzhen University (SZU) and deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC).

Li said that what he cares about most during the NPC session this year is integrated and fast development of Shenzhen’s higher education in order to provide talent and research support for the city’s development.

At last year’s NPC session, Li proposed to build Shenzhen into a special zone for higher education to speed up education development so as to serve the city’s development strategies.

It is of great significance to speed up the development of higher education for the building of the “two areas” because we need qualified education to cultivate talented workers, according to Li.

“From my perspective, education plays a role in deciding whether the development strategy can achieve expected results. And if we lag behind in education, it will impede the progress of developing the ‘two areas.’”

SZU has rolled out plans to develop itself into a world-class university this year.

“We are hoping that we can contribute to the building of the ‘two areas’ in some aspects by our efforts made in talent cultivation, scientific research and social services,” said Li.

Li also focuses on integrated development education in the Greater Bay Area, hoping to explore a mechanism among universities in the Greater Bay Area for more academic exchange.

“As the closest comprehensive university to Hong Kong, SZU should speed up development to attract more students from Hong Kong to study at SZU,” said Li.  

(Wang Jingli)