A group of senior engineers, university professors, scientists and managers announced in Hong Kong Tuesday to inaugurate Savantas Policy Institute, a think tank whose core vision is to transform Hong Kong into a knowledge-based economy.

Founding members of Savantas are all Hong Kong belongers who share the experience of studying or working overseas and cooperation with the Chinese mainland.

They said they hope to put what they learned overseas into practice in Hong Kong in an aspiration to make Hong Kong a better place to live.

The chairperson of the think tank's Board of Governors is Regina Ip, former Secretary of Security of the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), who just returned to Hong Kong after completing an MA. course at Stanford University.

Introducing Savantas to more than 100 guests and journalists at a presentation on Tuesday, Ip spoke on "The Vision of Savantas -- A New Economic Model for Hong Kong" and outlined the think tank's analysis of Hong Kong's economic situation.

Ip said, with the core vision to transform Hong Kong into a knowledge-based economy, Savantas will conduct public research and analysis pertinent to the HKSAR in the political, economic and social demains.

Ip said Hong Kong should adopt a new economic strategy to focus on pursuit of knowledge and innovation as the Chinese mainland positions itself to move up the value ladder while maintaining its dual links to the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world.

She suggested that Hong Kong can play as China's platform for technology transfer and intellectual property rights trading, thus help the mainland achieve high quality growth while realizing Hong Kong's economic transformation.

To achieve the goal of economic transformation, she said, Hong Kong needs to recruit well-trained, Hong Kong-origin engineers, researchers and scientists domiciled overseas, upgrade its long- term education while take in new immigrants and talents from the Chinese mainland.

Source: Xinhua