The 4th Training Course for Macao’s Young Workers in Science and Technology (2019) took place from 20th to 24th May. It was organized by the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the Macao Science and Technology Worker Training Agreement between Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) and the Academy, with an aim to deepen the workers’ understanding of the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area into an international innovation and technology hub. The Course’s opening ceremony was held in the morning of 20th May. Participants included Ma Chi Ngai Frederico and Cheang Kun Wai, respectively President and member of FDCT’s Administrative Committee; Zhang Yipeng, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Exchange and Cooperation under the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and Yu Jian, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Strategic Planning under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Officials from the Chinese Academy of Sciences also attended the event. They were Wang Zhenyu, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of International Cooperation, Mu Rongping, secretary of the Party Committee of the Institutes of Science and Development, Fan Jianping, President of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology and Li Fangfang, Director of the Hongkong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs Office, Bureau of International Cooperation.
 
      In his speech, Ma Chi Ngai Frederico expressed gratitude to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the instructors and students who had helped organised the Course. He remarked that the building of the Greater Bay Area into an international innovation and technology hub offers great opportunities for Macao’s science and technology development and that FDCT had been working in line with the SAR government’s policy guideline regarding technological innovation, having initiated two funding programs at the beginning of this year and been preparing for the launch of Macao’s Key R&D Funding Programs and the like. Ma underscored that talent is the key to technological innovation and this year’s Course revolves around technological innovation in the Bay Area, the development of the youths from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao along with other hot topics at the time. He encouraged the trainees to cherish the training opportunities by dedicating themselves to the Course, have more exchanges and work closer with each other.
 
      Wang Zhenyu welcomed the arrival of Macao’s trainees in his speech, where he introduced the Academy’s significant achievements in technological innovation in recent years and the progress of its technological cooperation with Macao. Wang also said that the Academy had given considerable attention to the Course, as it invited officials from different Ministries, Commissions, local governments, experts and academicians in relation to the technological affairs of the Bay Area to be the instructors, hoping Macao’s science and technology workers would benefit from their teaching. At last, Zhou Jiantao, Associate Professor of the University of Macau, expressed appreciation on behalf of the entire trainees to FDCT and the Academy for providing them precious learning opportunities. Zhou noted that he believed they would seize the opportunities to learn something from the Course and put it into use in contribution to Macao’s science and technology innovation and development.
 
      The Course was informative with a compact schedule. Five government officials and renowned academicians and experts gave lectures on the opportunities and challenges facing the Bay Area; the overall consideration behind the technological innovation planning for the Area; the Area’s innovation and development as well as cultivation of its innovation capability; Shenzhen’s technological innovation policies and its cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao; the development and innovation of the industries in the Area and so on. Apart from classroom learning, the Course consists of study and exchange trips to Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhongshan, where trainees were arranged to visit major enterprises such as Huawei, Tencent and China Southern Power Grid, as well as important research facilities and institutions like China Spallation Neutron Source, National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, which houses the Tianhe-2 supercomputer, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology and South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They also stopped at TIT Creative Park and similar key business incubators in, for instance, the Songshan Lake in Dongguan.
 
      The Course was attended by 20 people from local industries, tertiary education institutions, research institutions, banks, investment firms, technology transfer organizations, business incubation centers and other industries.

Ma Chi Ngai Frederico, President of FDCT’s Administrative Committee, Delivering His Speech