The South China Morning Post (January 24) reported that Guangdong province, one of China's biggest manufacturing hubs and its up-and-coming hi-tech region with grand ambitions to rival Silicon Valley in the United States, will open 11 new universities this year, with more to come in the next few years. The Shenzhen city local government announced it would invest 150 billion yuan (670 billion baht) to build 20 new universities and colleges by 2025, with an aim of boosting the number of full-time students on campus in the city to 250,000 from about 103,800 now. The Chinese University of Hong Kong opened a Shenzhen campus in 2014, which was soon regarded as Shenzhen's top university, with independence in teaching, teacher recruitment and its curriculum. The construction of a 30.7 billion yuan Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus in Foshan city was included in Guangdong's 2020 development plan. At least two other Hong Kong universities are expanding in Guangdong — City University in Dongguan and the Open University in Zhaoqing. Beijing's plan is to transform this southern region of 71.2 million people into a hi-tech powerhouse to rival California's Silicon Valley by 2035.
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