HKUST Guangzhou receives $12.8 m donation for scientific research innovation

Yuexiu Group, a real estate and financial conglomerate headquartered in Guangzhou, donated HK$100 million ($14.5 million) to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to support the school's Guangzhou campus. 

The donation will cover expenditures in academic and research work, develop innovative and interdisciplinary graduate programs, as well as be used to recruit top scholars. Yuexiu Group also donated another 10 million yuan ($1.44 million) to help foster premium innovation and entrepreneurship projects in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, as well as facilitate the commercialization of scientific research achievements in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

HKUST Council Chairman Andrew Liao Cheung-Sing expressed his thanks for the donation. "As the largest state-owned enterprise in Guangzhou, Yuexiu was founded in Hong Kong and has long served and contributed to both places with passion," he said. "Cooperation between the industry and academia is a key to the transformation of the Greater Bay Area into an international innovation hub. This significant donation by Yuexiu Group not only demonstrates its long-term commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, but will also support HKUST's development in talent cultivation and knowledge transfer."

Zhang Zhaoxing, chairman of Yuexiu Group, said at the ceremony that the donation to HKUST will enhance exchanges and interactions between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, allowing high-quality development and in-depth integration among government agencies, industries, academia, and research to produce a mutually beneficial situation.

The chairman also revealed Yuexiu Group's plan to team up with South China University of Technology, University of Macao, HKUST, and Guangzhou's technology department to launch a sci-tech alliance among the universities in the Greater Bay Area and to aid the construction of the Greater Bay Area Innovation Hub.

"HKUST and Yuexiu Group share the common goal of driving changes through innovation. The university is actively engaged in advancing cross-disciplinary pursuits for our innovation agenda, and our planned Guangzhou campus will support this priority," HKUST President Wei Shyy said.

He added that HKUST Guangzhou will explore interdisciplinary and inter-department construction, avoiding academic overlapping with the campus in Hong Kong and focusing on fields of artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, advanced materials, and other cutting-edge areas. 

The Guangzhou campus of HKUST will be located in Nansha district of Guangzhou, in close proximity to the Qingsheng high-speed railway station. The campus will cover an area of 1.13 square kilometers, twice the size of the main campus in Hong Kong. Construction is sheduled to begin at the end of this year.

The Guangzhou campus will start enrolling students in September this year. To date, it has recruited about 60 postgraduate students hailing from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and overseas. This first batch of students will study at the Hong Kong campus and six years later, HKUST Guangzhou will begin to enroll undergraduate students.