12 January 2016
A formal ceremony was held by Hang Seng Management College (HSMC) on 12 January 2016 to name its clock tower at the HSMC Plaza as “Lam Tai Fai Clock Tower” in grateful recognition of the generous donation of the Hon Lam Tai Fai,Legislative Council member who represents the industrial sector.
The Hon John Tsang, Financial Secretary; the Hon Lam Tai Fai, a Legislative Council member of the HKSAR; Dr Moses Cheng, Chairman of the HSMC College Council; and Professor Simon S M Ho, HSMC President, officiated at the clock tower unveiling ceremony. Over 180 guests, including Mr Lam’s family members and friends, together with, HSMC staff, students and alumni, were in attendance to bear witness to this memorable occasion.
In his speech, Dr Moses Cheng paid tribute to the Hon Lam Tai Fai for his exemplary role as a business leader and his ongoing contributions to spearheading education. In addition to its far-reaching significance to the local educational sector on the whole and HSMC in particular, his generous donation is sure to encourage self-financed educational institutions to nurture future leaders of the local community by striving towards higher quality in education and greater excellence in academic outcomes.
Setting his eyes on its future, Dr Cheng said, “HSMC will continue to work closely with its business partners, and keep improving programme design and developing new programmes to meet the needs for social progress. More innovative teaching and research projects will also be launched to enhance academic quality and enrich knowledge for the benefit of society. To create an ideal learning environment, we will carry on with our campus expansion geared towards its teaching and learning requirements. In addition, HSMC will proactively seek to enlarge our network of overseas partners, increasing quotas for exchange and internship programmes for HSMC students to enable them to broaden their global vision and strengthen their cross-cultural linguistic abilities.”
In his speech the Hon. John Tsang praised HSMC for its outstanding achievements just five years after being reorganised from Hang Seng School of Commerce in 2010, all thanks to the concerted efforts of the HSMC President, academic and administrative staff, and students. He said that during his tour of the campus just before the ceremony, he was very impressed with all the positive energy of HSMC students and teachers he had met. Particularly striking to him was the ubiquitous green spaces on campus, and HSMC students would no doubt find learning enjoyable in such a nice environment. He also expressed appreciation for the Hon Lam Tai Fai, currently Chairman of Panel on Education of the Legislative Council, for his staunch support for education in Hong Kong, and found his generous donations to further the cause of education over the years awe-inspiring.
The Hon Lam Tai Fai said, “Many graduates of Lam Tai Fai College have gone on to become students of HSMC, which offers a unique ‘Liberal +Professional’ education model to enable all-round development for its students.I am confident that, after graduating from HSMC, they will get to realise their potential by becoming budding professionals in different fields.” He added, “As a long-term investment, education requires sustainable resource inputs to produce the desired outcomes. To this end, more and more educational institutions abroad are taking a two-prong financing approach by accepting both government subsidies and corporate donations. Collaboration with business partners therefore marks the way forward to ensure sustainable and robust development, so that we can nurture more talents to serve our community.”
Apart from expressing his thanks on behalf of HSMC to the Hon Lam Tai Fai for his donation, President Simon Ho was particularly grateful to the Financial Secretary for gracing the event by taking time out of his hectic schedule. The Hon John Tsang’s approval of HSMC’s work was especially encouraging to its staff and students. Looking ahead, President Ho said, “HSMCwill continue to offer new programmes conducive to high-quality and innovative teaching and learning, strengthen HSMC’s research capabilities and promote its research culture, implement the unique “Liberal + Professional” education model, build external ties, increase fundraising efforts, enhance its residential college system so as to gear up for the Institutional Review and Discipline Review as another step closer to realising its goal of becoming a leading private university in Hong Kong. He also hoped that the Hon Lam Tai Fai’s generosity would inspire other leaders in society to follow his example and support HSMC’s further development.”
Lam Tai Fai Clock Tower is one of the landmarks on the HSMC campus.Located at the centre of the HSMC Plaza, it is a 12-metre tower featuring aunique design with a terracotta façade, glass panels, steel structure, and analog and digital chronographs. To ensure accurate timekeeping, all four clocks of the tower run in sync with synchronisation technology, receiving GPS signals in real time.
President Ho also said, “Both the advance of technology and the changing of times never end. As society progresses, the demand for talents will also change. However, this newly-erected clock tower will convey a never-changing message, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that marks the ever-up-to-date andnever-ending transfer of and quest for knowledge on our campus. Hopefully, inaccordance with our long-term development plan, HSMC will be in an even stronger position to make further contributions to quality higher education for the 21st century.”
