Hong Kong launches Belt & Road Scholarship for Myanmar students

The Education Bureau of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced Friday that the launch of a Belt and Road Scholarship for students from Myanmar.

The scholarship was launched with a view to attracting outstanding students from Myanmar to pursue undergraduate studies in Hong Kong from the 2019/2020 academic year, according to the Education Bureau.

Under the scholarship scheme, up to 10 scholarships will be offered annually to students from Myanmar who are enrolled in first-year undergraduate programs of publicly funded institutions in Hong Kong. All awardees will receive scholarships to cover the full tuition fees of relevant programs annually.

The Education Bureau also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday with the Ministry of Education of Myanmar on education cooperation to enhance education collaboration between the two places.

The MoU, which provides a framework to facilitate strategic collaboration between the education communities of Hong Kong and Myanmar, covers initiatives including provision of scholarships for students, exchange of expertise and experience.

"Signing the MOU with Myanmar and launching a new Belt and Road Scholarship can further internationalize the Hong Kong's higher education sector and enrich our pool of talents with international perspectives, with a view to contributing to the future development of Hong Kong," said Choi Yuk-lin, the HKSAR government's under secretary for education who signed the MOU with Deputy Minister of Education of Myanmar Win Maw Tun.

To internationalize and diversify Hong Kong's higher education sector and groom talents with global vision and an international network to enhance human capital, the Education Bureau launched the Belt and Road Scholarship for Indonesia in the 2016/2017 academic year and expanded it to cover Malaysia and Thailand in the 2017/2018 academic year.

The scholarship awardees can act as ambassadors to strengthen exchange and people-to-people bonds between Hong Kong and these places, the bureau said.