Lawmakers slams Hong Kong promo video for ‘misleading’ viewers about education offerings

Lawmakers have slammed a promotional video touting Hong Kong as an international education hub as being “sloppy, mundane and misleading”, with an official promising to improve the film.

The three-minute clip had already been broadcast at an international education fair in Australia in March and played up local delicacies, the proximity of the countryside and the city’s 12-year free education system – which is not open to foreigners.

But members of a Legislative Council subcommittee on Monday criticised the video as they discussed how to promote the city as an international tertiary education hub.

City leader John Lee Ka-chiu earlier this month laid out plans to establish a “Study in Hong Kong” brand in his third annual policy address, in a bid to attract university students from around the world.

Undersecretary for Education Jeff Sze Chun-fai shared the video with lawmakers at the beginning of the meeting, saying the government had already broadcast it at the event in March to promote the city as an international hub for tertiary education.

But three lawmakers in the meeting were critical of the video after watching it.