Press Release

HKBU fundraising dinner raises over HK$20 million for University's strategic development

Wednesday, 06 Nov 2019

More than HK$20 million has been raised for the multiple initiatives set out in Hong Kong Baptist University's (HKBU) Strategic Plan 2018-28 at the fundraising dinner organised by the HKBU Foundation on 1 November at the InterContinental Hong Kong. With the theme of “New Decade of Innovation & Excellence”, the dinner was a signature event to commemorate the first decade of excellent achievements of the Foundation, and the evening was well attended by around 500 distinguished guests, alumni, staff, friends and supporters of HKBU.

Officiating guests at this special occasion included the Honourable Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, Secretary for Education of the HKSAR Government; Dr Kennedy Y H Wong, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the HKBU Foundation and Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Dinner; Mrs Susan W H So, Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Dinner; Dr Clement Chen Cheng-jen, Chairman of the Council and the Court of HKBU; Professor Roland T Chin, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU; and major sponsors and their representatives.

The Honourable Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, in his address at the dinner, said: “The new round of the Matching Grant Scheme gives a new impetus for generous philanthropists to support the strategic development of the University. I am pleased to learn that HKBU has achieved very encouraging results under this Scheme. Within a few months, the University successfully raised over HK$500 million, which generated matching funds of close to HK$300 million. All dinner participants here demonstrate a strong passion for education and Hong Kong. I hope that all of you will continue to contribute to the HKBU Foundation, and facilitate society to move forward.”

In his welcoming address, Professor Roland T Chin thanked all the guests who sponsored and participated in the dinner for their staunch support of the University. He said that the funds raised by the dinner will help the University recruit 100 top academic talents to enhance its teaching and research capacities, and construct the new Hostel and Academic Building Complex which will provide student hostels and a creative hub, as well as state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities. Overall, the new building will bring an international perspective to the campus, he added.

Speaking at the dinner, Dr Kennedy Y H Wong extended his appreciation to the numerous sponsors and supporters of the dinner, as well as members of the organising committee for their concerted efforts over the past year. He said: “With the staunch support of Foundation members over the past decade, the Foundation has raised more than HK$2.23 billion and its membership has increased more than quadrupled from 131 to 727 since its establishment in 2009.”

Alumni Eric Ng and Caca Lam served as masters of ceremonies for the event, which was kicked off by a duet violin performance by students from the HKBU Department of Music. One of the highlights of the dinner was the live auction, which received an enthusiastic response from the bidders. Dr Simon Suen successfully bid HK$200,000 for a coral diamond brooch, which was sponsored by Mr Kevin Ng; Mr Stanley Yim won a bottle of deluxe wine, which was sponsored by Dr Kennedy Wong, with a bid of HK$350,000; Mr Cheng Chak-kuen and Mr Dickson Shang won the “Five-character Couplet in Regular Script” and the “Seven-character Couplet in Running-regular Script”, which were both written and sponsored by the late Professor Jao Tsung-I, with their respective bids of HK$1,300,000 and HK$1,500,000.

Other exhilarating programme highlights included a talk by Professor Ken Yung, Professor of the HKBU Department of Biology, on his fruitful teaching and research; a speech by alumna Angel Cheng, Founder of Build A Music School; and a musical finale from gifted singer and alumnus Albert Au, which drew the event to a perfect close.

The success of the dinner relies on the tremendous support of all the individual sponsors, corporations and organisations. They include, but are not limited to, the following: