Ivis Sze

Mr Ivis Sze

Honorary University Fellow (2012)

Mr Ivis Sze was born in Hong Kong.  His father, Dr. Sze Chi Ching, JP, is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and deputy director of the Committee of Cultural and Historical Data, as well as a renowned calligrapher, educator, and philanthropist.  Having the benefit of his parents’ teachings as a child Mr Sze has met with great success in adulthood, and has always served as an exemplar of outstanding morals, vision and intellect for his three younger brothers.  The Sze family in Hong Kong has always been a notable “family of CPPCC members”: Mr Ivis Sze is a member of the 8th to 10th CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee while his three brothers are respectively members of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee, Fujian Provincial Committee and Guizhou Provincial Committee of CPPCC.
 
Mr Sze and the Szes’ family have their hearts on both China and Hong Kong, having made huge contributions to both charity and education programmes.  Their contributions to China’s reforms and Hong Kong’s prosperity have earned them high recognition and esteem among the communities as well as the government authorities of the two places.
 
Mr Sze is an industrious entrepreneur of great success.  In youth, following in his father’s footsteps, he helped expand his company’s business to the Mainland and later on to the global stage.  Responding to the calls for reforms and opening up, Mr Sze actively invested and participated in infrastructure development in the provinces and autonomous regions on the Mainland.  Since 1985, his company has been investing in new factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Fujian. Following the state-driven developments in the western regions of the Mainland, his company was also involved in development projects in Beihai, Guangxi, Hainan, Hubei and Yunnan.  Later, in response to calls for further developments in the “North Bay Economic Development Zone”, he took the initiative to invest in the opening of a “Hong Kong Street” in Nanning city.  This particular project was considered by the local authorities as a key to enforcing economic ties and collaboration between Hong Kong and Nanning, and was attached high importance by the party committee and government of the Nanning city of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.  Mr Sze is presently Board Director and CEO of Hang Tung Resources Holding Limited of Hong Kong.  Under his leadership, the group’s diverse businesses cover real estate, import and export trade, industry, stocks and bonds, and software development, boasting a global network of operations.  It is a true multi-national corporation of impressive scale and comprehensive organization, one that is expanding by the day.
 
Mr Sze, a reputed businessman, is dedicated to charity work and cares about Hong Kong’s political, economic and social development.  He supports the Government of the HKSAR in implementing the policy of “one country, two systems” under the Basic Law, and contributes to the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and its business sector.  As a member of the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and deputy chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Jinjiang and Shanghai, he has actively participated in the affairs of the country and in charity, and has made generous donations in many instances.  As early as in 1987, he has donated two million to his hometown Jinjiang to set up an education fund for the local teachers, outstanding students and academics, sponsoring their pursuit of further studies abroad.  Mr Sze has also donated to higher education institutions in Hong Kong and in other regions on the Mainland, as well as to various charity bodies, hospitals and community organizations.
 
In 2009 and 2010, Mr Sze and his father Dr Sze Chi Ching donated to Hong Kong Baptist University to support its overall development and its Advanced Institute for Contemporary China Studies in publishing journals.   In recognition of his staunch support to the University, Mr Sze has been invited to be Honorary Permanent President of the HKBU Foundation.
 
Mr Chairman, in view of Mr Sze’s philanthropic spirit, his tremendous  contributions to local and Mainland educational and charity enterprises, and in particular the staunch support that he and the Szes’ family have rendered to the University, it is my privilege to present Mr Ivis Sze to you for the award of an Honorary University Fellowship.