Two weeks ago, an advertisement was placed in a local newspaper, condemning Chinese mainland students for coming to Hong Kong and depriving local students of the opportunity to enter university or find a job. The anti-mainland attitude clearly aims at evoking a cliquey sense among Hong Kong people, and thus intensifies the conflict between the two places, which does absolutely nothing beneficial for our city.

Regarding to the so-called "snatching university quotas", both the figures provided by the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong suggest that the enrolment of mainland students in both universities completely conforms with regulations made by the government. If we accuse the mainland students of coming to Hong Kong for education and forcibly occupying the quotas of local students trying to enter university, then what do we say to our students going abroad or to the mainland for further study?

As for the complaint of taking away job opportunities, it makes even less sense. Statistics show that the unemployment rate in Hong Kong from March to May this year is 3.4 percent and the underemployment rate is only 1.6 percent - a status that's close to full employment, which only exists in a perfect state. The reality of Hong Kong's economy is that a lot of companies are in urgent need of workers today. The labor shortage is quite severe in many industries.

We should keep in mind that Hong Kong is an open city that is short of natural resources. It is the business environment and the talents that have made gigantic contributions to its economic development. In this case, if mainland students are willing to work in Hong Kong after graduation, it can help relieve the intensifying labor shortage and benefit the accumulation of talent in our city.

We can simply refer to the case of Singapore and see what its government does just to attract talent. In order to attract foreign students to the country for education to avoid brain drain, Singapore has successively put forward a wealth of policies to encourage these students to stay in the country and start a career. Companies are encouraged to pay high salaries to these students, too. Compared to how great the importance Singapore attaches to foreign talents, it is somehow sad to see some Hong Kong people adopt a hostile attitude towards mainland students, and even place advertisements against them.

It is undeniably true that some mainland tourists don't act decently in the city - not paying attention to hygiene, being impolite and rude, etc. This indicates that the general quality and accomplishments of mainlanders are not yet satisfactory. As a matter of fact, it is beneficial for the mainland students to study in Hong Kong and compare the cultural differences between the two places. By doing this, it is also helping the whole of the Chinese mainland to elevate the quality of the people in an indirect way.

Moreover, these students leave their hometowns and come to Hong Kong for further education, showing their urge for improvement by seizing the chance to study. If most of the Hong Kong students study diligently like them, I believe there won't be that much of a quota "lost" to the mainland students.

As the saying goes; we know relative superiority or inferiority through comparison. We advance through competition. Therefore, I sincerely hope that instead of complaining about others all the time and excluding them, the young generation of Hong Kong can refocus on education - the very thing they should be concentrating on.

The author is the vice-president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.

(HK Edition 07/18/2013 page1)