‘It’s worth fighting for’: fintech students in Hong Kong hope to make their mark in Greater Bay Area
- Hundreds of students in Greater Bay Area Fintech Talent Initiative to undergo three-week training on financial technology this month
- Victor Fong, 20, hopes to work in bay area over the next 10 years and bring technological advances to his home country in South America
Chinese-Venezuelan student Victor Fong Hu Zizheng, 20, was awed by mainland China’s fast-growing technological advances in artificial intelligence and digital payments every time he visited the region during his summer holidays.
The country’s rapid progress inspired Fong, who was born in Venezuela but moved to Hong Kong with his family seven years ago to avoid the political and economic turmoil there, he said.
Now studying financial technology at the University of Hong Kong, he hopes to one day bring the scientific advances back to his home country in South America to help it thrive.
“We don’t have these things in South America … When the political crisis hit [Venezuela], it made me think a lot about how integral the financial system was to the country,” he said.
“If you could export these technologies to less developed regions, like South America or Africa, they could build more robust and effective systems. People could have more access to credit and improve their lives.