MIT’s Hong Kong centre shows city can succeed in innovation and technology, CY says
Chief executive says laboratory will offer young people opportunity to learn from world’s best innovators
The establishment of an innovation centre in Hong Kong by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows the city has the potential to develop in the areas of innovation and technology, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said today.
The MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node, set to launch next summer, will be the first overseas lab of the Boston university. It will allow around 40 students from the United States and Hong Kong to form groups to exchange ideas and turn the best ones into products.
Leung said the laboratory would offer young people in Hong Kong a good opportunity to learn from some of the world’s best innovators.
“This illustrates that the world-leading MIT has a high regard for Hong Kong’s capability and potential in the area of innovation,” he said before an Executive Council meeting.
He recalled a visit he made to MIT’s media lab and innovation centre with a group of Hong Kong university students in May, saying he was “moved” by the insititute’s achievements. He said Hong Kong needed to make more effort to catch up.