The Centre for Sustainable Design and Environment (CSDE) invited Dr. Lee Ka-yin Anna to give a seminar presentation of our new CSDE Seminar Series: “China: Sustainable Urban Development and Conservation Issues” in THEi Chai Wan campus on 17 April 2019. Dr. Lee Ka-yin Anna, Dean of Arts and Assistant Professor at Department of Social Sciences of Centennial College, shared her research findings on the topic “Institutional obstacles and opportunities for policy entrepreneurship in cross-border environmental management: a case study in China’s Greater Pearl River Delta region”.

During the seminar, Dr. Lee offered an explanatory study for the implementation of a trans-boundary air quality monitoring network, Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, in 2005. Building upon the concept of “policy entrepreneurship”, she discovered that the policy entrepreneur’s political rank endowed him with direct access to the formal cross-border institution, through which he was able to build a close professional relationship with his mainland counterparts and enabled him to be a transfer agent. Nonetheless, she cautioned that effective cross-border collaboration is still largely dependent upon the contextual framework of the authoritarian governance regime whereby the interactions between policymakers and implementers are fundamentally shaped by institutional design and incentives. This provoking seminar attracted attentive participation by staff and students from THEi and community members.

The Centre for Sustainable Design and Environment (CSDE) Seminar Series on “China: Sustainable Urban Development and Conservation Issues 2019-2020” aims to enrich the knowledge of the students and staff of the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong and the members of the public with the thematic focus on the latest urban development and conservation issues from the sustainability perspective in contemporary China. The seminar series will also be able to promote intellectual exchange and facilitate inter-institutional research collaboration for academic staff and students, as well as to enhance overall professional knowledge and practice of practitioners in the arboriculture and horticulture industry.