V23I1 Special

6 into the mainland, which has just launched the so-called “5+3+X” residency training reform initiative. Having presided over the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine since its founding by Sir David Todd a quarter of a century back, albeit on an ad personam basis by our professoriate colleagues, we have accrued much hard-earned experience to offer the rest of the country. To this end, I am pleased to report that HKU Health System with its four constituent teaching hospitals officially became a member of the Chinese Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals for Residency Education, leaders of each of the other eight academic health sciences centres are here with us in the procession. This marks a historical milestone of Hong Kong’s deep re-engagement with the mainland through our professional contribution. Not only can we share lessons we have learned through this process, we can also ensure that our own training scheme will be compatible as the country’s fledgling system matures. This could guarantee portability of our specialist qualifications nationwide that would extend beyond 2047. Just as Sir David had the foresight to build Hong Kong’s own specialist training regime to ready ourselves for 1997, we are now coming full circle to become nationally accredited as we approach 2047 when today’s graduands will be at their prime. On the subject of deep engagement with the national health system, HKU-Shenzhen Hospital is our bridgehead. Let me take this occasion to congratulate it on the double happiness of having just been certified as the newest “3A” hospital in Guangdong province as well as designated an officially recognised residency training site by the national ministry. Accomplishing either feat would have been remarkable, let alone both within the short span of five years since commissioning. Its financial health has also improved to the extent that its operating budget, importantly inclusive of the HKU service contract, is now balanced. I began my report by citing the first two elements of The Great Learning , which were 修 身、 齊 家 (perfecting oneself and one’s family). Now I should like to end my presentation by recalling the remaining two elements of 治 國、 平 天 下 (leading the country and the world). I dare not suggest that we would really be first amongst equals with our national and international peers. Suffice that HKU remains open to global interconnectedness, as a lynchpin in southern China and through the renewed Sea Silk Road to the rest of the world. We have done much to prepare ourselves. We boast four State Key Laboratories partnered with leading mainland institutions. We are also the Asian hub of Institute Pasteur with the HKU-Pasteur Pole and Karolinska Institutet’s first international foray with the Dr Li Dak Sum HKU-Karolinska Centre in Regenerative Medicine. Both the director and president of these respective esteemed institutions are also on stage. We are the exclusive clinical partner of Asia’s largest hospital group, Parkway Pantai, viz Gleneagles Hong Kong which began operations in March this year. At the global level, we host a WHO Reference Laboratory for Influenza and a WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control. The list goes on. In keeping with Hong Kong’s history, we are at our best when we are open, welcoming and collaborative with the world. Especially during the present inward-looking age of nationalistic isolationism and even tribalism, the Faculty of Medicine declares ourselves a global citizen, a friend to our profession worldwide and a voice for all humanity. My first predecessor, Sir Patrick Manson in his remarks at the inauguration of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese on October 1, 1887 said: …The old Greek cities used to boast of their great men, and claim them with jealous care. Let us hope that in the new and greater China of the future, when the learned dispute of their great men, not a few may be claimed for Hongkong and for the school to-day inaugurated… I am content that we have done his words justice. And so today I say to you: New cities along the Belt and Road will benefit from the wisdom, compassion and commitment of our graduates, from generation to generation. Let us pray that in the renewed globalism of tomorrow’s world, when the people consider leaders of clinical medicine to planetary health, more than a few may be claimed for Hong Kong and for the faculty today celebrated.