President of University of Waterloo, Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur and his team were invited to visit AMTD’s Hong Kong headquarters and had profound discussion with Mr. Calvin Choi, Chairman and President of AMTD Group. This is the second time in half a year since the Group and the University signed strategic partnership agreement and co-established “University of Waterloo – AMTD Innovation Hub” in November 2017 that President of University of Waterloo, Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur visited AMTD’s Hong Kong headquarters again. Both sides exchanged opinions on further expanding strategic cooperation, promoting the research and development of innovative technology and supporting cultivation and education of innovative talents. Other visitors included Vice President of Advancement of University of Waterloo, Professor Joanne Shoveller; Dean of Mathematics, Professor Stephen Watt; Dean of Engineering, Professor Pearl Sullivan; Senior Education Director of Advancement, Faculty of Math, Candace Harrington and Mr. Michael Wong from University of Waterloo Hong Kong Foundation.
In November 2017, under the witnesses of Mrs. Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, Mr. James Henry Lau Jr, JP, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr. Nicholas W.Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology and Mr. Jeff Nankivell, Consul General of Canada in Hong Kong and Macao, AMTD Group and the University of Waterloo officially co-signed a strategic partnership agreement to jointly promote the research and development of innovative technology and support the cultivation and education of the innovative talents. Two parties will work together to advance “Waterloo.ai Alpha project” by co-establishing an Artificial Intelligence institute to promote the research, development and application of innovative technology and to support the incubation and development of start-ups. Moreover, the Group and the University jointly established “University of Waterloo-AMTD Innovation Hub” to encourage the leading creative and innovative talents in University of Waterloo to come to Hong Kong, aim at advancing the exchange and connection between the innovative technology of North America and Asia.
Calvin Choi showed President Feridun Hamdullahpur and other visitors around AMTD’s Hong Kong headquarters and held discussions together. Calvin Choi said that as a Hong Kong-based comprehensive financial institution with a global influence, AMTD is glad to strategically partner with University of Waterloo, the biggest Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing around the globe to jointly advance the technological innovation and talent cultivation in the field of Artificial Intelligence. AMTD has always been committed to the development of innovative technology in Hong Kong and Asia to fully utilize Hong Kong’s role as “super connector” and to contribute to improving Hong Kong’s international reputation on innovative technology.
On behalf of University of Waterloo, President Feridun Hamdullahpur presented a souvenir to Calvin Choi. President Feridun Hamdullahpur said, the teams from both sides have worked closely since two parties signed the strategic partnership agreement in November last year. “University of Waterloo-AMTD Innovation Hub” was put into operation in Central, the prime location in Hong Kong and further implementing a series of projects and gaining fruitful results. In the past 60 years, University of Waterloo has excellent performance in promoting the development of innovative technology and has cultivated many outstanding talents of innovative technology and entrepreneurs. The University hopes that its cooperation with AMTD can serve as an example of university-industry cooperation and an example of Canada-Hong Kong cooperation to further promote the construction of Hong Kong as a “smart city” and to promote the development of innovative technology.
University of Waterloo is world-renowned for innovative scientific research and has been rated as the university of the greatest innovative power for 23 consecutive years in Canada. Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has specially praised University of Waterloo on its innovative achievements in the World Economic Forum, University of Waterloo is then known as the Canada’s Silicon Valley. University of Waterloo, as one of the biggest Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing in the world, emphasizes co-operative education incorporating learning with practice. The University is regarded as the “cradle of Canadian entrepreneurs” as the students of University of Waterloo have developed and founded Blackberry, Google Adwords and Kik Messenger.