"First-class universities, first-class cities and first-class Bay Area were born in * * *." In an exclusive interview with Nanfang Daily recently, Song Yonghua, an academician of the European Academy of Sciences (foreign), an academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the president of the University of Macau, said that in order to build Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into an international science and technology innovation center, it is urgent to improve the ecological chain of university technology transfer, optimize and upgrade the existing policies, and accelerate the scientific research achievements from "laboratory" to "production line". At the same time, it is necessary to explore the establishment of cooperative international talent policies, including international talent identification standards, evaluation and incentive mechanisms. In order to avoid disorderly competition and excessive competition in talent introduction in cities.
Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao realize cross-regional scientific and technological cooperation
Need institutional mechanism innovation
Nanfang Daily: Compared with new york Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area in the United States, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in scientific and technological innovation? What's next?
Song Yonghua: In recent years, by vigorously introducing or promoting the construction of national laboratories and the layout of scientific instruments, the shortcomings of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's relatively weak basic research and original innovation capabilities are being quickly remedied, but there is still much room for improvement. For example, the total number of invention patents in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ranks first among the four Greater Bay Area countries in the world, but some data reflecting the quality of patents are not as good as those in the other three Greater Bay Area countries, and they are not dominant in basic invention patents.
In my opinion, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area should do well in three aspects to accelerate the construction of an international science and technology innovation center with global influence.
First of all, we should constantly improve the quality of talent training in colleges and universities. Cultivating high-level talents mainly depends on higher education. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's higher education has made great progress in recent years, but compared with other world-class Greater Bay Area people, there is still a certain gap between the talent training system and the number of high-quality talents. For a long time, cultivating talents with family feelings, international vision, global competitiveness and world responsibility has been my conceptual basis for cultivating talents in world-class universities. This is not something that can be accomplished in one battle. Need to do it in a down-to-earth manner.
Secondly, it is necessary to improve the scientific and technological innovation system in colleges and universities, especially to strengthen the research ability of original innovation and key core technologies. The regions with the most active scientific and technological innovation in the world today have a number of world-class universities. At present, universities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hongkong and Guangzhou all have relatively perfect scientific and technological innovation systems. However, the scientific and technological innovation system of universities in other cities is still insufficient, which makes the overall scientific and technological innovation output of universities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area not as good as that of other three Greater Bay Area cities in the world.
Furthermore, build a complete ecological chain for the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and promote the rapid transfer of scientific research achievements from universities to science parks and then from science parks to industrial parks. Innovation is a complete chain, including basic research, applied research, technology development, industrialization of achievements and many other links, which needs the support of ecological environment. There are significant differences in economic models and legal systems between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and cross-regional exchanges and cooperation between the three places still face some practical obstacles. It is urgent to optimize and upgrade the existing policies, whether it is to speed up the training of scientific and technological talents, enhance the original innovation ability or establish an integrated ecological chain in Industry-University-Research. It is necessary for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to strengthen the top-level design and institutional layout from a long-term perspective, and strive to make greater breakthroughs in promoting institutional and institutional innovation.
Building Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone
It is expected to accelerate the deep integration of rules.
Nanfang Daily: In terms of R&D and industrial innovation, how can Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao give full play to their respective advantages and achieve misplaced development?
Song Yonghua: The key to the cooperative development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is to give full play to their respective advantages and realize rational division of labor, complementary functions and integrated development. Hong Kong has the largest number of world-renowned universities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, while 80% of the teachers of the University of Macau come from outside Macau, forming a trilingual teaching system (Chinese, English and Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese and English). However, universities in Hong Kong and Macao cannot independently establish a complete chain when promoting the transformation of scientific research achievements, and need to further strengthen cooperation with the mainland.
In recent years, Guangdong has provided sufficient policy support in introducing innovative and entrepreneurial teams from Hong Kong and Macao and promoting the development of high-end industries. Not only the government is actively involved, but also the business community is very enthusiastic. This is a good trend.
Nanfang Daily: Promoting the construction of Hengqin Guangdong-Macao deep cooperation zone will bring new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation and development between Guangdong and Macao.
Song Yonghua: As an important platform for cross-border cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Zhuhai, Hengqin has gathered more and more professionals from all walks of life in Hong Kong and Macao in recent years. Promoting the construction of Hengqin Guangdong-Macao deep cooperation zone is expected to speed up the deep connection of rules, mechanisms and plans, promote the efficient and convenient flow of cross-border elements in Greater Bay Area, help Macao fully integrate into the overall situation of national development, and open up a broad space for the long-term development of Greater Bay Area's west coast.
As the only international comprehensive public university in Macau, the University of Macau is also the university with the strongest scientific research strength in the West Bank of Jordan River. Strengthening the integration of Industry-University-Research is the general direction of our integration into Greater Bay Area. To this end, the school established Zhuhai Australasian University Science and Technology Research Institute in Hengqin, which is the first Industry-University-Research demonstration base established by Australasian University in Greater Bay Area. In the future, I hope to seize the historical new opportunity of the construction of Hengqin Guangdong-Macao deep cooperation zone and further cooperate closely with Zhuhai in personnel training and scientific and technological innovation. In due course, we will also enter the layout of other node cities in Greater Bay Area and carry out more scientific research and achievement transformation activities.
Policy communication and coordination should be strengthened in talent introduction.
Nanfang Daily: What suggestions do you have for Guangdong to cooperate with Hong Kong and Macao to attract outstanding international talents to develop in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? What room for improvement does Guangdong have in building and optimizing the talent ecology?
Song Yonghua: In recent years, many governments and enterprises in Guangdong Province have made great determination to attract international talents. In some places, the construction of international talent zones has been started, and pilot projects of skilled migration have been carried out first. Some new talent policies are not only ahead of Greater Bay Area, but also attractive all over the world. On the whole, however, Greater Bay Area's comprehensive supporting service policies and measures for international talent flow still need to be improved, and it is necessary to establish an international talent service management system that is in line with international standards, reflects China's characteristics and conforms to Greater Bay Area's positioning as soon as possible.
In my opinion, it is important to strengthen the gathering effect of international talents in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, such as salary incentives, housing security and tax incentives. However, a soft environment such as inclusive and diverse cultural atmosphere is also indispensable. Special attention should be paid to creating a first-class ecological environment for talents in Greater Bay Area, instead of seeking breakthroughs only in local areas or certain industries. This requires all localities to pay more attention to strengthening communication and coordination before the introduction of talent policies, so as to avoid disorderly competition and excessive competition in talent introduction in Greater Bay Area.
Nanfang Daily: What suggestions do you have for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to strengthen cooperation in higher education?
Song Yonghua: Different countries and regions have different educational ideas and experiences, so it is important and necessary to exchange ideas and learn from each other. The theory of cooperative management is ultimately to give full play to their respective advantages, which is a long process. Among them, preparation is very important.
In recent years, many universities from Hong Kong and Macao have cooperated in running schools in Guangdong. Each university has its own key development direction and characteristic disciplines, as well as the unique advantages of talent training. Similarly, every city in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has its own location advantages, industrial layout and development strategy. Cooperative education projects should define the orientation of running schools, match the local development needs with the characteristics and superior resources of universities, and promote the integration of production and education and the combination of Industry-University-Research, which not only pursues the sustainable development of the projects, but also promotes the high-quality development of the regional economy. This is an important criterion to judge the quality of cooperative education.
Nanfang Daily reporter Gong Chunhui
Coordinator: Luo Xiaohua