Chief Executive Mr. Donald Tsang just announced in the new policy address that the Government will actively support the development of innovation and technology by allocating $200 million to launch a cash rebate scheme to encourage more R&D projects conducted by enterprises in partnership with local research institutions. Technologies always play a crucial role in successful entrepreneurial initiatives. The new initiative will definitely help facilitate local technology development, which will in turn, provide more opportunities for innovative entrepreneurial projects.

 

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has always been at the forefront of entrepreneurial research and technology transfer. With an aim to foster collaboration among academics, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and the government, the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Innovation and Technology at CUHK and Stanford Technology Ventures Program will co-host the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE) Asia 2009 on October 21 to 23, 2009 in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. REE is an annual international conference established by Stanford University ten years ago to stimulate knowledge transfer between universities and the rest of the economy by fostering collaboration between business, science, and engineering faculty who teach high-technology entrepreneurship. This year, Hong Kong will hold the REE Asia for the first time.

 

The theme of REE Asia 2009 is “Global Entrepreneurship”. The Silicon Valley model with its involved universities, government funded laboratories, strong IT, electronics, software and other industrial clusters, vibrant culture and well developed capital markets will be discussed in the context of what works in Asia. The conference will stimulate communication and collaboration between, on one hand, university research and teaching faculty and, on the other, entrepreneurs and leaders of industry and government. Over 100 will attend, with approximately one third coming from Hong Kong, one third from mainland China and one third from the rest of the world. 

 

The three keynote speeches are the highlights of REE Asia 2009. Professor Tom Byers and Dr. Tina Seelig of Stanford Technology Ventures Program as well as Professor AnnaLee Saxenian, Dean of School of Information, University of California, Berkeley will present their findings and innovative insights into technology transfer from universities to the economy.

 

Besides, there will be a number of expert panels discussing the technology transfer in East Asia, managing informal and venture capital investments through the crisis and entrepreneurship education throughout the world. Entrepreneurs who have established successful companies from university technologies will present their living cases. Scholars from around the region will present 18 papers on education and entrepreneurship in parallel sessions.