Chief Executive John Lee today continued his trip to Kazakhstan by visiting a local university and meeting its President to exchange views on strengthening higher education collaboration between the two places.

In the morning, Mr Lee led a delegation to visit Nazarbayev University in Astana and was greeted by its President Prof Waqar Ahmad.

Following a meeting with the professor, Mr Lee attended a signing ceremony for Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) between the university and Hong Kong higher education institutions.

He iterated that Hong Kong is promoting the “Study in Hong Kong” brand and offering the Belt & Road (B&R) Scholarship. Currently, about 500 Kazakhstani students are studying in Hong Kong, making them one of the largest groups among Hong Kong’s B&R student community.

Mr Lee welcomed more Kazakhstani students to come to Hong Kong for study and career development, and further promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two places.

He noted that Nazarbayev University is Central Asia’s No. 1 university, and the place where President Xi Jinping first proposed the joint building of the Silk Road Economic Belt in 2013, marking the profoundly significant genesis of the B&R Initiative.

Nazarbayev University today signed MOUs with the Education University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to continuously deepen academic exchanges and research collaboration. Today's pacts followed a 2025 MOU that was signed with the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology to launch a bachelor programme in Eurasian business administration.

“These agreements will deepen academic and research collaboration. They will strengthen people-to-people ties between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. This growing network of institutional partnerships is precisely how we build enduring foundations for long-term co-operation and mutual rewards,” said the Chief Executive.

He added that the partnerships today are just the beginning for more education collaboration between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan in the future to jointly nurture talent with a global vision and contribute to the talent pool of the Belt & Road Initiative.

Mr Lee attended a luncheon hosted by Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Kazakhstan Han Chunlin, before heading for Uzbekistan.