Macao academician calls on city to focus on research, tourism education to achieve sustainable development

Macao's higher education institutions should go all-out to maximize their strengths in scientific research and tourism education to actively contribute to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said Pang Chuan, vice-president of the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST).

Pang, who is also a member of Macao's Legislative Assembly, told China Daily this strategy would also help Macao - the smallest city in the Bay Area both in land area and population - achieve more-sustainable development.

The Bay Area development outline, unveiled on Feb 18 and which vowed to turn the 11-city cluster into a global innovation and technology hub, has created a historic opportunity for Macao's universities, an indispensable force of the region's innovation and technology research, Pang said.

In order to pursue the development of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao innovation and technology corridor, a significant cross-boundary project in this field, the outline also pledged to explore policies to facilitate the cross-border flow of innovation elements such as skilled workers, capital, information and technologies.

Pang encouraged Macao universities to make the most of limited resources and invest more to support scientific research fields in which Macao has a competitive edge.

Despite gaps with top-level scientific powerhouses in the Bay Area, Macao's universities, despite their relatively short history, have achieved fruitful scientific outcomes, including some groundbreaking achievements, Pang said.

Currently, Macao has established four national-level laboratories since 2010, carrying on cutting-edge research in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), microelectronics, internet of things and planetary science.

They are the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine; the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI; the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City; and the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences.

The four labs, operated by the University of Macau and the MUST, have published more than 2,500 academic papers and have been granted more than 250 patents from inside and outside of China.

Pang encouraged the labs to strengthen collaboration with other scientific powerhouses in the Bay Area, such as jointly developing academic programs and sharing scientific resources, to achieve more innovative results.

He also called on them to accelerate the transformation of these scientific outcomes through more cross-boundary collaboration with other Bay Area cities, where there are integrated industry chains and abundant land and labor resources.

These two means of collaboration are both in line with the development outline of the Bay Area, which promotes scientific collaboration among Bay Area education institutions and offer favorable conditions to transform Hong Kong's and Macao's advanced technologies.

The MUST, a shining star in Macao's scientific research field, is actively responding to the call, Pang said.

The school, established in 2000, is an emerging powerhouse in the research of TCM and space science. It is in charge of the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences and jointly operates the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine with the University of Macau.

Noting that strengthening cross-boundary scientific collaboration will be the MUST's top priority, Pang said the university is actively cooperating with the Bay Area's educational institutions.

Last year, the MUST set up a joint laboratory for translational cancer research of Chinese medicine with Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, a prestigious TCM research institution, to further the research on the pathology of cancer and drug discovery.

Through these collaborations, the MUST has offered cutting-edge scientific outcomes and connections with foreign academic communities. Benefiting from the Bay Area's rich resources and broad market, the MUST has also expanded its scope and enjoyed favorable conditions to achieve scientific breakthroughs, Pang said.

Besides scientific collaborations, Pang also encouraged Macao's higher education institutions to use its advantages in tourism education to help turn Macao into a training base in the Bay Area.

By cultivating more skilled workers, Macao could fuel the development of Bay Area's tourism industry and help attract more tourists, Pang said. This is also desirable for Macao to develop into a global tourism and leisure center.

There are four higher education institutions in Macao offering quality tourism education, including the Institute for Tourism Studies, the University of Macau, the City University of Macau, and the MUST.

A competitive faculty of MUST, the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management gained certification in Tourism Education Quality, or TedQual, as early as 2007 from the World Tourism Organization, the UN agency that promotes tourism for its contributions to economic growth, inclusive development and economic sustainability.

The faculty has offered bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs related to the management of tourism, hotels and catering. Over 5,000 students have graduated from the programs.

In addition to that, Macao is also an ideal place for students to practice their skills. With a great many world-class hotels and affiliated vocational facilities, Macao could offer abundant opportunities for students to get training or serve internships, Pang said.

To better tap Macao's abundant resources in this area, all of Macao's 10 higher education institutions signed an agreement to form an alliance, aiming to develop Macao into a Bay Area tourism education training base through closer cross-boundary collaborations.

Besides teaming up with Bay Area counterparts to conduct more research of coordinated tourism development, the Macao institutions also plan to enroll more students from other Bay Area cities and set up designated scholarships.

What's more, they also intend to expand the scope of training to university teachers and government officials. The courses will be designed according to different characteristics of each city's tourism industry.

With efforts to help the Bay Area nurture more skilled workers, Macao could benefit from such collaborations, Pang said. For example, by jointly conducting tourism-related research with other prestigious institutions in the field, such as Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province, Macao will be more informed with the characteristics of other cities' tourism industries and customers, which will help the city to better formulate related policies and strategies.

Looking forward, Pang is confident about the "promising" future of cross-boundary collaboration in this field. He believes more favorable policies will be rolled out as the Bay Area development outline extends support for Macao to leverage its experiences and strengths in tourism training and education.

bingcun@chinadailyhk.com