Youngsters get creative spin from liaison chief

(The Standard P.4  10 Sep 2013) The younger generation in Hong Kong should look beyond cyberspace when communicating or seeking information, Beijing's top representative in the SAR said.

  

Central government liaison office director Zhang Xiaoming was speaking at the Boao Youth Forum at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday.

 

The one-day forum on "Creative Youth, Innovative (創新的) Asia: Joining Hands for a Better Future" was designed as a brainstorming session for the territory's (領土) young to tap into the ideas of business leaders, such as HSBC Asia-Pacific chief executive Peter Wong Tung-shun and Liu Mingkang, former chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

 

"Young people should not only use microblogs, WeChat or WhatsApp to communicate," Zhang said. "They should also not just shop at Taobao [one of the mainland's online shopping websites] or Amazon, or only read comments about restaurants made by bloggers. They should instead widen their vision. Don't just be a beneficiary (受惠者) of creativity (創造力)."

 
Zhang said while it was nice to see that Hong Kong was rated the seventh most competitive region (地區)in the world, the SAR lagged (落後) behind in creativity. 
 

He also said that Hong Kong's being ranked 23rd in innovation in the latest World Economic Forum is far from satisfactory (不令人滿意的).

 

Zhang said it is necessary for the SAR government and society to invest (投資) in creativity to prevent Hong Kong's economy from sliding.

 

Speaking at the same forum, acting chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the young should expand (擴大) their horizons (視野) and equip (裝備) themselves to face challenges. The SAR government has always supported the young who use creativity to carve out a business of their own, she added.

 

Hong Kong Economic and Trade Association president Eddy Li Sau-hang said the young are generally less hardworking because they face no great pressure to make ends meet though many are of a creative bent(天分).

 

Eddie Luk