HK$80m pledge to boost public policy research at universities

The government plans to spend HK$80 million over the next four years to foster more public policy research at universities.

This is on top of HK$60 million set aside since 2005 under the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme, which aims to boost Hong Kong's policy making capabilities.

To date, one of 61 projects funded under the three-year scheme has been completed.

Funds for the scheme are allocated to the Central Policy Unit (CPU), the government's think-tank, but administered by the Research Grants Council of the University Grants Committee. The head of the CPU, Lau Siu-kai, acknowledged that think-tanks were underdeveloped in Hong Kong, relative to other countries and territories in the region. But, he said, Hong Kong was entering a new stage of development that would be favourable to policy research studies and the formation of think-tanks.

'The reason we provide the money is to induce academics to look at matters from a non-governmental perspective so that we can make use of their imagination and creativity.'

The government increasingly wanted to see its policies based on research rather than just opinions, or demands from different groups.

'Hong Kong is changing so fast. We need research and ideas desperately. Given the fact that people are now more practically oriented and less enamoured of ideological or emotional fights, they are now more receptive to new ideas,' he said.