Symposium: Grassroots Financial Education in the Greater Bay Area
Speakers pose before the start of the symposium. From left to right: Dr Tan Weiqiang from SSC, Ms Sze Lai-shan from SoCO, Professor Li Wai-leung, Dean of FLASS, Ms Anny Choi Suk-man from IFEC, and Professor Christina Yu Wai-mui from SSC.
In his welcome speech, Professor Li Wai Keung, Dean of FLASS, says that the faculty’s financial education team has made quite a number of achievements in the area.
To facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge in regards to financial education between the academic, business and social welfare sectors, the Department of Social Sciences (SSC)* held the “Grassroots Financial Education in the Greater Bay Area (GBA)” symposium on 16 May, 2023 at the Tai Po campus of the University. Run in an onsite-online hybrid format, the symposium was jointly funded by the Jiangsu-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance and the Central Reserve Allocation Committee of EdUHK.
At the welcome speech of the symposium, Professor Li Wai-keung, Dean of FLASS, affirmed the importance of financial education for the grassroots. “In recent years, FLASS has made quite a number of achievements in this area. We have established an interdisciplinary approach to financial education, and launched the Master of Arts in Personal Finance Education (MA(PFE)) programme. EdUHK’s financial education team won the Gold Award for Corporate Finance Education Leadership in IFPHK 2022 – a recognition from the industry for the high quality of its work and management,” Professor Li said.
The “Grassroots Financial Education in the Greater Bay Area (GBA)” symposium was composed of two sessions: “Financial Education for the Grassroots in Hong Kong” and “Financial Literacy among the GBA Rural Residents and Rural Revitalisation”. Professionals from the education, business and social welfare fields shared their latest research works on financial education and financial literacy enhancement. In the second session of the symposium, scholars from GBA and the Yangtze River Delta Region joined experts from Hong Kong to share their latest research findings.
Professor Christina Yu Wai-mui from SSC, left, relays findings from the “Financial Literacy among the Single Women in Hong Kong” report.
Dr Tan Weiqiang, Associate Professor of SSC and the Programme Leader of MA(PFE), releases two survey-based reports at the symposium.
Ms Sze Lai-shan from SoCO, centre on the right, shares her comments on the Hong Kong government’s poverty alleviation policy.
Ms Anny Choi Suk-man from IFEC, centre, shares the Financial Education Programme for Vulnerable Groups implemented by IFEC.
Dr Tan Weiqiang, Associate Professor from SSC and the Programme Leader of MA(PFE), released two survey-based reports to begin each of the two sessions of the symposium: “The Survey Report on the Financial Literacy among the Grassroots in Hong Kong”, and “The Survey Report on the Financial Literacy among the GBA Rural Residents”.
In the “Financial Education for the Grassroots in Hong Kong” session, Ms Sze Lai-shan, a member of Commission on Poverty and Deputy Director of The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), shared her views on how to eradicate poverty and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation policy in Hong Kong. The audience was briefed by Ms Anny Choi Suk-man from the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC) about the council’s Financial Education Programme for Vulnerable Groups. Professor Christina Yu Wai-mui from SSC relayed findings from the “Financial Literacy among the Single Women in Hong Kong” report to the audience.
Professor Xie Zhiju from Guangzhou University shares her qualitative report on the emergence of “New Farmers” in mainland China.
Qian Yuting, Research Fellow from Soochow University, presents her research outcomes on “Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship among the GBA Rural Residents”.
In the second session of the symposium, scholars from mainland China presented their research findings under the theme “Financial Literacy among the GBA Rural Residents and Rural Revitalisation”. Professor Xie Zhiju from the Public Administration School of Guangzhou University (GZU), who is also the Director of the Institute for Rural Revitalisation Research of Guangdong Province based in GZU, delivered a qualitative report on the emergence of “new farmers”, a newly coined term to describe young people on the mainland leaving cities to return to their hometowns to make a living by farming. Qian Yuting, a research fellow at the Business School of Soochow University, presented her research paper on “Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship among the GBA Rural Residents”.
Presentations at the symposium covered concerns regarding financial education via a wide range of grassroots groups, including low-income families, ethnic minorities, single women, rural residents, and so forth. “The design of the symposium echoed the philosophy of financial inclusion promoted by the United Nations: the universal access to a wide range of reasonable and sustainable financial services. We believe that with more initiatives being implemented to promote the idea of inclusive finance and more people sharing such an ideal, certain concepts in personal finance, financial education, and a more inclusive financial system will begin to take root in society. This will allow us to tap their full potential,” said Dr Tan Weiqiang.
Note:
* The Department of Social Sciences (SSC) and the Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS) were merged in July to form the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS).
