2019 Lingnan International Advisory Board Meeting
On Nov 22 and 23, the 2019 annual meeting of the International Advisory Board of Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University was grandly held at Shenzhen. This was the eighth session since its establishment in 2012 convened by Professor LIU Mingkang, the Honorary Dean of the time. The committee then was composed of leaders of world-renowned MNCs and deans of famous business schools.
The International Advisory Board meet once a year to provide advice and resource for the strategic development of Lingnan College. This meeting coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of Lingnan College, rendering a historic significance of the meeting as a link between the preceding and the following.
The Board members and representatives attending this grand event included: Mr. Benjamin HUNG, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Greater China; Mr. LIN Taiyuan, Director (Vice President) of the Future Technology Innovation Center of Hyundai Motor Group; Mr. CHEN Nan Lok Philip, Managing Director of Hang Lung Group and Hang Lung Real Estate Co., Ltd.; Ms. WU Shuqing, Member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of Chinese People ’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice Chairperson of Beijing Aviation Food Co., Ltd.; Professor Carl P. Zeithaml, Dean of McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia; Ms. Alison Terry, Director of Affairs, Fortis Hill Mining Company (FMG); Mr. Hoi Jack CHEN, Chief Partner and CEO-elect of Financial Services of Ernst & Young Greater China, member-elect of the Global Executive Committee; Mr. James WONG, Chairman of China Alpha Fund Management (HK) Co., Ltd. and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University; and the newly-added Board members at invitation by Chairman LIU Mingkang including: Mr. HE Xiaojun, Director of the Guangdong Financial Bureau; Mr. Carlson Tong, former Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission; Mr. CHAN Tak-Lam Norman, former Director of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; and Mr. Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant Financial Services Group.
The meeting was chaired by Professor Carl P. Zeithaml, Dean of McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia.
At the meeting, the honorary Dean of our college LIU Mingkang delivered a speech on the theme “2020, The Challenges and Opportunities of China’s Economy”, in which he pointed out that the global economy would continue to slow down or even enter a recession in 2020, and the sluggish would spread from the manufacturing to the consumption. As a result, the challenges China’s economy facing would include: the uncertain prospect of Sino-US trade agreement, the test on the regional political relations, the structural readjustment of China’s economy and its quality, and the refinement of China’s legal system. At the same time, Dean LIU also recognized that the tide would also bring new opportunities and new understanding of China in the near and medium term, for example: to urge China to seriously consider deepening reform and opening up further, to work with other countries on economic cooperation, to promote the basic research development and application, and to spur the reform of China's capital market, etc.
Corresponding to the challenges and the opportunities, LIU proposed that Lingnan College should emphasize on cultivating the complex and high-quality talents needed for the in-coming industrial revolution and social transformation; insist on rooting the school’s education and research in the industrial needs in order to drive the innovation in Guangdong Province, to promote the endogenous growth, to enhance the development quality, to strengthen the investment environment, and to facilitate Shenzhen ’s pioneering trial; as well as bind tighter with our alumni, to know better about their needs, to care more about the development in their companies, such as to realize innovation on our life-long education pursuit.
Professor LU Jun, Dean of our college, introduced to the members of the Board the past-year development of Lingnan College, especially the achievements made in building up our teacher-team, research publication, talent training and international cooperation. Professor LU specifically mentioned that the establishment of Lingnan College was an attempt of China ’s higher education reform and opening-up, which received the efforts and support of the older generation of Lingnaners led by Mr. WU Zhande; it was attributed to the support from our alumni and the officials at all levels and people from all walks of life that Lingnan College could have developed to the position of today. In the past 30 years, Lingnan College had made tremendous progress, trained countless talents, and produced a large number of managers to the academic, political, and business circles. We had achieved fruitful results in academic research and become recognized in the international community. The programme of Global Master of International Business, cooperated by Lingnan College, the McIntire School of Commerce of University of Virginia, and ESADE Business School of Spain, ranked 11th in QS Global and No.1 in Asia Pacific. Our insurance actuarial research ranked 10th in the world and No.1 in China. And our Master of Finance program ranked 60th in FT Global, and in China we were the 7th-ranking Business School.
In recent years, Sun Yat-sen University proposed three “Orientations”: oriented toward academic frontiers, oriented toward national major strategic needs, and oriented toward the national and regional economic and social development. The construction of the Greater Bay Area had been included in the national development strategy. Under such circumstances, to explore the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area had become the mission of Lingnan College as a well-known economic management school. As Lingnan College being at the threshold of our next thirty-year passage toward a world-class economics and management college, we looked forward to the thoughts and suggestions from our International Advisory Board, as well as their further support for our international recruitment, visiting-professors introduction, curriculum establishment, student development and so on.
Dean LU also responded to the advices and opinions the Board had given last year and reviewed our corresponding moves.
During the meeting, the members of the Board congratulated Lingnan College on its achievements in the past year and offered plenty of advices on our development strategy for the next thirty years. The Board suggested that Lingnan college should take into full consideration the impact of new technologies on the entire society, and the social responsibilities that, as a national leading business school, Lingnan should shoulder. In terms of the development of the college, the Board members suggested that we should learn from world-class business schools in various aspects such as the scientific research, the teaching, and the student training; and make full use of the online publicity to strengthen the brand recognition of Lingnan College. Regarding the unique advantage of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that Lingnan College was located at, the Board members believed that it was necessary for Lingnan to establish an interdisciplinary training system, and to provide the government with professional advices on policy formulation.
On the afternoon of November 22, before the meeting was held, Mr. WANG Lixin, Vice Mayor of Shenzhen met with LIU Mingkang, Honorary Dean of Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University, and the members of Lingnan International Advisory Board.
Vice Mayor WANG Lixin welcomed Liu Mingkang and the Board, congratulated on the convening of 2019 meeting of the International Advisory Board of Lingnan College of SYSU in Shenzhen, and briefly introduced to the delegation the economic and social development of Shenzhen in recent years. He said that at present, Shenzhen studied thoroughly and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the inspection of Guangdong’s development, building a leading demonstration zone of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and creating a city model for the country of a modern socialist country. In order to promote the education in Shenzhen, the municipal government had issued a series of policies to attract the best universities and teachers at home and abroad, to create a first-class scientific research and teaching environment, to stimulate the basic research and applied basic research, such as to build Shenzhen into a global innovation center. WANG expressed his hope that the members of the Advisory Board would offer advice and suggestions which would help Shenzhen do better in its business environment, and attract more talents at home and abroad for entrepreneurship and investment, as for Shenzhen to realize a high-quality growth and provide better services and drive for the Greater Bay Area construction.
The members of the Advisory Board shared their views and suggestions on how Shenzhen, as the core engine of the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, should promote its development in finance, education, technological innovation and other fields. They also expressed their appreciation for the chance of providing help to Shenzhen’s development.
