Hong Kong Deputy for the National People's Congress Andrew Yao Cho-fai is on the show this week to talk about how Hong Kong can better integrate our policies with national policies in order to push forward our AI and tech development and attract and nurture the talents needed so that the city can realize goals laid out in our nation's development plan.

Check out the full transcript of TVB’s Straight Talk host Dr Eugene Chan’s interview with Andrew Yao:

Chan: Good evening! And welcome to Straight Talk with Eugene Chan. Last week, Dr Ko Wing-man from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was on the show, sharing with us his insights from the 2025 Beijing two sessions. This week, we are joined by Hong Kong deputy for the National People's Congress, NPC, Andrew Yao, who will share his thoughts on what the latest policy directions mean for Hong Kong's tech and higher education landscape. Yao is the chairman of the Hong Kong Shanghai Alliance Holdings Limited and has served as a Hong Kong deputy to the 12th, 13th, and 14th National People's Congress. He holds key roles in major organizations, including China COSCO Shipping Corporation. Yao is deeply involved in fostering business and youth development between Hong Kong and the mainland, and he's currently the Council Chairman of the Hong Kong Lingnan University. Welcome, Andrew, to the show!

Yao: Thank you, Eugene! Thank you for having me.

Chan: Right, with your young age, you have already been like … this is your third term, as the NPC deputy. What's your overall experience attending this year's session as compared to the past?

Yao: NPC stands for National People’s Congress. There are 36 of us representing Hong Kong, and you're right, I'm on my third term. So, let's just talk briefly about what NPC does. Okay, NPC is the highest what we call authority, according to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. What we do in the annual meeting is a couple of things – we will inspect and vet the premier's report and then the Reform and Development Commission will come up with a report, as well as the Finance Bureau. So, we have to approve that. NPC also makes law, especially to update the Constitution. This year, if I look at the legislative schedule, there are around 30 to 40 laws to be made or to be updated. So, quite a heavy workload. Most important of all, I think the NPC is the one that makes and updates our Basic Law of Hong Kong.

Chan: Right when you mentioned the word two sessions, does it mean that one for the NPC, one for the CPPCC?

Yao: Correct. CPPCC stands for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. So, the name is consultative. So, what actually happens, according to my understanding, is the NPC session is where the premier and everyone come in to do the report, and the CPPCC are invited to attend the NPC sessions.

Chan: Right. So, this is your third term, and what will be your takeaways from the two sessions this time?

Yao: The policy of our country is actually quite transparent. I don't think it varies greatly from year to year. What I usually look forward to is the 14th Five-Year Plan, and right now we are on the fifth year of that plan. Next year will be the 15th Five-Year Plan. So, if we look at those two plans, you will see one main theme that I think will apply to Hong Kong, is the continuous technological innovation for our industry, what we call the higher value-added industry. That is a very clear direction. China wants to make clothing and shoes also, but more importantly, we would like to make airplanes, chip manufacturing, life science industry. So, the whole country is geared towards what we call higher value-added growth.

Chan: I mean, since you have been a deputy to the NPC, representing Hong Kong's interests as well, how do you see this year's sort of, I mean, it's already the fifth year of the 14th Five-Year Plan …

Yao: Correct.

Chan: … and the 15th is coming up soon. How does it impact Hong Kong with all these policies?

Yao: Okay, I was born and grew up in Hong Kong, I think, for the last 27 years, or even before that, for the last 177 years, Hong Kong is about helping multinational like Fortune 500 companies establishing either a manufacturing base in mainland for export purpose or to help the multinational to develop the market in China, right? That's very, very simple. But I think we need a mentality change for Hong Kong businessmen. For the next five, 10 years onwards. I think what we need to do is to help the national champion in China, especially the technology company going overseas. For example, if I were 20 years younger, I would go to Abu Dhabi and Qatar and be a distributor for the EV electric vehicle companies for the mainland, I think, for a couple sector like EV car, solar panel, etc, we have national champion, but also universal national champion already. And I see that for the next couple five five-year plans, there'll be at least 20 new technology industries, could be life sciences as well, DNA sequencing, pharmaceutical manufacturing. Those will be coming up. Now Hong Kong people have to, first of all, understand the technology behind the business environment in the mainland and then how we link ourselves. For example, we can help Xiaomi, the car company, to go overseas and be responsible, let's say, for the international arbitration or intellectual property registration. They couldn't be dealing with 180 countries at the same time. But in Hong Kong, people with fluency of the basics of the Basic Law, sorry for the common law, we have the capacity to do.

Chan: Right, Andrew, as you were just mentioning what you just said, I was just thinking about the report actually delivered by Premier Li Qiang. Not only he reaffirmed the ‘one country, two systems’ guiding principle and pledged to support the GBA capacity for innovation, he also specifically first time mentioned that deepening international exchanges and cooperation, very similar to what you've just said. But this has never been included. It must be the first time. So what will be the implication of this? I mean, have we not done enough, or should we be doing even more? How do you interpret this sentence?

Yao: Like, what the example I gave you just now, we were about importing. Now we have to export our expertise together with the national champion or the technology company from the mainland to go overseas. That is where Hong Kong as a super connector. I think we can do that.

Chan: Right, I mean, super connector has been mentioned, this word has been mentioned in the last couple of governments in Hong Kong. And I think Hong Kong does play a role to sort of bringing in international connections and actually going global for our mainland companies. So, have we not done it already? I mean, why should this be mentioned again? Does it imply that we haven't done enough or we have to do even more to make it more effective?

Yao: Well, let's look at the GDP component of Hong Kong. I think the import and export sector is one big industry. The financial service sector is another big industry. Now, we all always compare ourselves with Singapore. I think there is an element of truth. Singapore has a much more diverse industrial base. Like it or not, they have an oil and gas industry, they have a chip manufacturing industry, and they have a leading pharmaceutical and life science industry. I think Hong Kong should invest our future, securing, of course, the financial service. But having the expertise in a certain kind of high-value-added manufacturing like what I mentioned before ... let me give an example. You mentioned that I have the honor to be on the board of COSCO Shipping. COSCO Shipping is a shipping company, but COSCO has already gone through its transformation. It is now a shipping technology company. What does that mean is how we go from point A to point B using big data and climate information and the customer demand to plot the shortest route that can save 10 percent of the fuel. For example. Number two, how to develop dual energy, dual gas, gasoline and green methane shipping in this manufacturing basis. So, this is what I'm trying to say: from a purely shipping to a shipping technology company like in Hong Kong companies, we should be thinking about that also.

Chan: So, Andrew, since you mentioned this work that we have to sort of, I'm sure we couldn't do more. One area that I want to ask you, I'm sure the viewers will like me to ask you that, the world's recognized Hong Kong is definitely a part of China through what has happened. But what if, that being the case, we can't escape from the geopolitical tensions …

Yao: Correct.

Chan: … and actually, I believe we were sanctioned by the US in some of the areas. So, how can we get around this, to be able to go global?

Yao: I always say that nobody can do damage to us except ourselves.

Chan: Right.

Yao: Yes, there's a lot of geopolitical things going on as well, but what I usually do is I kind of ignore it and look at myself. Is my company doing enough to strengthen itself in terms of value-addedness? Am I doing enough in manufacturing to make it cost-efficient, and am I attracting talent so that the company becomes better? So, this is what I think people in Hong Kong should be thinking: develop our own strength, a new strength that might not be the same strength that we had before, but one thing is very important is we have the backup of our country.

Chan: When you mentioned that, I mean Hong Kong, we have always done well by being developing our strength and being our good legal system, the integrity of Hong Kong people and now the government … I mean, we are now being asked or being suggested or advised to integrating to the overall national development and following the major national strategies. Will that take away the Hong Kong uniqueness, in your view?

Yao: I don't think so. So far, all the Chinese leaders that I have spoken to publicly and privately still value Hong Kong’s unique ‘one country, two systems’, especially our legal system, our internationalization of renminbi, our Hong Kong currency, our peg. These are the uniqueness of Hong Kong. I don't think we need another mainland city.

Chan: Right.

Yao: We have to be unique. I believe that the national policy is to make sure that we have a unique way of living forward.

Chan: Andrew, let's take a short break now, and viewers, do come back, and we will be right back.

Chan: Welcome back. With us is Hong Kong Deputy to the NPC, Andrew Yao, and he has been sharing with us his insights on Hong Kong's new mission from the 2025 Beijing two sessions. So, Andrew, I want to just retouch on the area that you have tried to explain to the viewers, that basically, I think a lot of people want to know that how Hong Kong can strike a balance between while deepening integration with the mainland development and the policies while preserving our unique easy-a-meet identity, ensuring that we are an attractive and globally competitive hub. Because too many of our friends are saying that we are losing the color of what Hong Kong used to be. How would you respond to that?

Yao: I would look at it slightly differently. You know, we’re all born and grew up in Hong Kong, I think Hong Kong is a very Western city. I think still, Hong Kong maintains a high integrity in terms of the legal system and financial services. That is okay, no problem. But I think we need to go and understand what is the new business opportunity, what is the industrial uniqueness and capacity. I always meet with entrepreneurs, I always meet with scientists, and university professors. They all have good ideas for new products. But how do they do it in a new prototype? And how do they set up a company? How do they manufacture it efficiently and then export it? All these are opportunities in Hong Kong. You have probably heard of what we call “shopping online” for a platform that has been developing recently. I think Hong Kong has taken advantage of that. Hong Kong airport cargo business has been doing very well because of that. So, how do we Hong Kong people attach? This is one of the industries that has come up recently, there are many, many others.

Chan: Right. And also in the government's work report, they always mention these new quality productive forces.

Yao: Right.

Chan: How does Hong Kong’s strength … can we apply that to assist our biomanufacturing, AI, or even 6G communications to the mainland industries?

Yao: I think we, Hong Kong people, first of all, have to understand technology. And one thing about technology is that the uniqueness is that we have to tolerate failure, we have to take a longer-term view. We are not going to get a return in 12 to 24 months, we have to keep investing. We have our uniqueness. We have 8 publicly-funded universities that have very, very good scientists and research. But how do we convert that research into what the technology company needs? Across the border in Shenzhen, there are many very good technology companies. Hong Kong could be a link, linking Hong Kong professors, converting their research into an actual product, so that the technology company would then need it. But again, the key point is understanding what the technology company on the mainland needs. That is what Hong Kong people should be looking to.

Chan: Right. Andrew, Financial Secretary Paul Chan was on the show a few weeks ago with his Budget. And he announced a HK$10 billion innovation and technology industry guidance fund in the recent Budget.

Yao: Yes.

Chan: Where do you think, being someone interested in tech, where shall we roll out that money to so that it is going to be even more effective for Hong Kong's industries?

Yao: I am very, very glad and happy to hear about the HK$10 billion fund. And the uniqueness of that fund is also being administrated by our Technology and Innovation Bureau.

Chan: Right.

Yao: Which is different from the Hong Kong Investment Corporation, because the Hong Kong government has already lined out four unique technology sectors – fintech, life science, AI, and advanced manufacturing etc. So, we have to stick with our core competency, in terms of research and research capability. What I think we have to do is to create an ecosystem for this technical innovation. I think there are three different important factors that have to be in this ecosystem. Number one, we have to have a technology park that understands the latest trends in technology, and has the connection to reach out to the world and the mainland, where these new companies are. Number two, we need to have a fund, we need to have the fund to help these companies, so that they can go through their first and second phase. And then, hopefully, eventually they can go overseas, also take advantage of the Hong Kong financial market. And number three, I think we have to have the technology company coming in, that with the talent. I think the Hong Kong Talent Import Scheme, I think it is a very, very successful thing that the government has done. We have right now 100,000 either highly paid or highly educated people. I know a lot of them have not been coming to Hong Kong to work yet, but they are all looking at the opportunity. And these people are great entrepreneurs. A lot of these people are from Shanghai and Beijing, who have an understanding of what the technology company needs. If we give them an environment, an ecosystem in Hong Kong, they will excel because they know, as you say, what the Eastern company is, and they come to Hong Kong and we have the way to know what the Western company is.

Chan: Andrew, Secretary Chris Sun would be very happy to hear that, you said that this is a very good initiative. But are we doing enough to attract them to come even earlier, I mean, faster? I mean, I am sure they have been saying that a lot of people come to Hong Kong, but they haven't really started working here yet. What can we do to get them to get started, so that we know exactly what they want?

Yao: Eugene, I agree with you wholeheartedly. We should get them earlier. I think we should get them at the university undergrad stage.

Chan: Right.

Yao: Just as the Singapore government has been targeting, the gifted and talented since they are in high school. Right now, we have 55,000 non-local Hong Kong students at the undergraduate level in the eight universities. What is 55,000? These 55,000 people actually contribute to HK$10 billion, in terms of tuition to us.

Chan: Right.

Yao: There are 290,000 mainland students in the United States. There are 150,000 mainland students in England, Canada, and Australia, easily half a million. We are only getting 5 percent ... 10 percent of that. I think Hong Kong universities should switch their mentality. We are not only a university for Hong Kong students, we should be a university for the nation, and also for international people who want to come in and receive their higher education. I think we can easily double that to 100,000. We have a group of people who have spent four years understanding and living in Hong Kong. And our goal is hopefully to convert them into our citizens also.

Chan: Right. Andrew, we will go back to the education bit in the last final part. But one area I want to just ask your opinion that the recent DeepSeek breakthrough has caused a widespread debate around the world.

Yao: Correct.

Chan: What are your thoughts on Hong Kong's role in AI development? I know that we are trying to do that as well. Do we have any competitiveness in Hong Kong in that area? What do you think?

Yao: When we talk about AI, we have been focusing on computing power, NVIDIA. We have to buy the best and fastest computer chips, right? I think what DeepSeek has told us is that if we think and contribute in the algorithm, the way to compute rather than computer power, I mean, this is what has proven to have a lower cost implication for artificial intelligence. I know Hong Kong schools, some of them have very good mathematics classes. This is, we need to develop our homegrown mathematicians. Tsinghua University, Peking University, Jiao Tong University, and Fudan University are all doing that. And we could be a part of it.

Chan: Right. Just now you mentioned education, this is an area that I definitely have to ask you about because you are the chairman of the Lingnan University Council. Our chief executive, in his 2024 Policy Address, said that we will try to establish our city as an international tertiary education hub. So, this is exactly what you said, I mean we are only having like 10 percent of overseas students from the mainland and that means a lot of dollars for the city.

Yao: Correct.

Chan: So, how can we do more to attract more students to come, and at the same time, act as a bridge for them to the outside world, as we said by the premier in the beginning of the work report?

Yao: Hong Kong has a very natural attractiveness for people to come here to study at higher education universities. You know, all the universities are teaching in English. Coming to Hong Kong is like going overseas for a lot of mainland parents.

Chan: Right.

Yao: I think we have no problem attracting mainland students here, and the ones who come here for undergraduate are usually some of the best students. I think what we have to think about is how do we attract more truly international students, especially “one belt one road” students. I met with a lot of students from Southeast Asia and also South Asia. They are brilliant students …

Chan: Right.

Yao: … but these students also need scholarships. I think as an educational hub, we have to have an industry to collect tuition for people who can afford it. But at the same time, give out scholarships to some of the brightest students internationally and attract them.

Chan: Right. Andrew, as you are mentioning, I just remember that our LegCo member, Priscilla Leung, organized a two-day global university president and leader summit.

Yao: Exactly that is what we should be doing more to attract more international academics to come to Hong Kong, as well as students. And the second thing I think we have to do is to think about the size of our total student population.

Chan: Okay.

Yao: Like I said, we have eight universities. The eight universities have 60,000 undergrads, and probably another 45,000 graduate students. A total population of 110,000 to 120,000. Is that a good number? Is that the right number? Do we have a way to expand that? If we look at higher education as an industry, which Hong Kong people like to, money talks, right?

Chan: Right.

Yao: So, it could be a very, very high reward, high value-added industry also.

Chan: Right. Thank you very much, Andrew, for sharing your ideas. I will definitely invite you soon to talk about more of the education perspectives. The directives from the two sessions have definitely set a bold vision for the future, and reinforce the critical role Hong Kong has to play, not just in supporting the national development, but also in bridging the Chinese mainland and the world.

Have a good evening and see you next time.