The Hong Kong Government must more actively support and fund technology programmes if it wants to turn Hong Kong into a knowledge-based society, according to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) president Professor Paul Chu Ching-wu.
He also said the university was negotiating with domestic and overseas companies on private funding for HKUST research. The worldwide economic slowdown as well as the attacks on the United States on September 11 last year had slowed progress on outside funding but 'we are talking to quite a few companies', he told the American Chamber of Commerce yesterday.
'If there were no 911, perhaps I could give you some numbers,' Prof Chu added.
The Hong Kong Government had in the past few years reduced funding to its universities. Grants to HKUST amounted to HK$1.3 billion in 2000, down from HK$1.6 billion in 1998.
Prof Chu, a physicist who took up his present HKUST post in July, still maintains research projects into superconductivity in the US.
He pointed out that the earliest silicon manufacturing facilities in the US were funded by the Department of Defence there.
'Hands-off doesn't work,' he said. 'If you want to embark on new technology, the Government cannot sit on the sidelines.'