First, let me give my heartiest gratitude to Gruppo Malacalza for hosting our delegation, as well as for the warm and enthusiastic hospitality we received from everyone we were introduced to in Gruppo Malacalza and Genoa. While I cannot speak for all my colleagues in the delegation, I cannot imagine that they would not agree with me that Genoa is indeed a stunningly beautiful Italian city, facing the deep blue Mediterranean, and full of rich and long history, and full of palpable energy.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, our delegation is here at the gracious invitation of Gruppo Malacalza and Aurora Imaging Technology Inc., to explore ways so that entrepreneurs, high tech corporations, and academia can collaborate for the betterment of humanity. When I received this invitation some months ago, I took the opportunity to study the details of Gruppo Malacalza, and I found out that it has two enormously attractive features.

One of them is that not only does this giant corporation engages in "low tech but highly profitable business," such as being a giant international steel company, but it also has established a robust international joint-venture known as Baosteel Italia. Of course, we all know that Bao-Steel, or Bao-Gang, is a giant steel manufacturer of China. The brother of Davide, Mattia, among many hats he wears, is the Vice President of Baosteel Italia. For this reason, my colleagues and I were pleasantly surprised to meet a number of high officials from Bao-Gang yesterday in Gruppo Malacalza's corporate headquarters in Genoa. The Bao-steel connection palpably shows that for leaders of Gruppo Malacalza, "globalization" is an inherent part of its business process and attitude. They are determined to pursue the best in the business for partnership, wherever they may be.

Second, just as Aurora Imaging Technology Inc, Gruppo Malacalza is not a public company. Also, just as Aurora, it is forward looking and seems to be well endowed with innovative ideas and projects. Projects being pursued by the company range from developing highly sophisticated magnets for pure physics research at CERN and Max Planck Institute, to developing with innovative magnets "stand-up" open as well as other MRI systems. You have already heard from President Chu a number of fascinating applications of the open MRI system which Gruppo Malacalza is producing, which included traditional imaging internal organs of humans and testing the quality of agricultural products. How exciting indeed.

Therefore, once I recognized these inherent qualities of Gruppo Malacalza, I accepted the invitation with enthusiasm and anticipation, and without hesitation. What I saw and heard in the past two days, I was not disappointed.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, you are probably asking yourself why is President Chu and I are here.

Well, I am sure you have sensed that something unusual and remarkable is occurring here. As you know, one of your colleagues Thomas Friedman of New York Times have coined the word "flat" to describe the world today. What you are witnessing here is indeed a manifestation of this flatness, not only in geographical distances (Europe, North America and Asia), but also across disparate human endeavors (business and academia). Indeed, in this paradigm, universities of the 21st century can no longer be just intellectual epic centers, which they must never retreat from, but they must also have a nontrivial and proactive component responsible for driving the economy, regionally and globally. Products of universities, i.e. the students, must have broadest view of the horizon, geographically as well as in knowledge. They must seek destinies in new discipline globally as careers.

In this landscape, it should not come as a surprise to you that President Chu and I, both currently senior officials of Asian universities, are here to explore opportunities for our respective universities. As senior administrators, one of our portfolios is to promote multinational and multidisciplinary culture and research on campus. One of our jobs is to be on a constant lookout for the best, anywhere on earth, and bring them in contact with our colleagues and students. In the flat world, there is no place that is too far, and no culture that is too unfamiliar.

Our motto is "seek the best in the global village!"

Finally, I should also say that it is not a coincidence that both of us came from universities in the Asia Pacific region. In the past several decades, especially now that we are in a new century, while the region is making reinvention a norm, not an exception, universities in the region are also making enormous strides in intellectual quality and technology transfer strengths. Perhaps what is truly exciting is that there is a sea change of recognition that "globalization" is now a must for the Asia Pacific region and not a luxury.

This is why there can be so much synergy between our universities and the vision and practice of Gruppo Malacalza, Pharos Funds and Aurora.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am confident that the best is yet to come!