The government should invest in the study of the sciences for its own sake rather than always being on the lookout for an economic return, the man who invited Stephen Hawking to Hong Kong said.
Speaking after Professor Hawking's lecture, Professor Yau Shing-tung, director of Chinese University's Institute of Advanced Mathematical Sciences, said although the physicist had not said anything new, there was a very important lesson to be learned from him.
'I hope the Hong Kong government realises that general laymen, Hong Kong citizens, care about this sort of thing, not just about so-called knowledge economics,' he said. 'They are interested in general, fundamental things like the origins of the universe.
'I hope the government might be more willing to spend money on pure science rather than just being interested in the kind of research that brings a return in the market. If you don't pursue science for its own sake it means you don't respect it, and if you don't respect it, you will never create the scientific ideas that produce technology in the long run.'
Professor Yau, who is chairing the international mathematics conference on string theory in Beijing at which Professor Hawking is speaking next week, said this was why the United States had led the world for the past 50 years.
'The US has created, applied and really made use of science. It has a huge number of people working on pure science,' he said.