President's Awards

Early Career Research Excellence Award

Dr Brian FONG Chi-hang
方志恒博士
Assistant Professor
Academy of Hong Kong Studies

Dr Fong Chi Hang, Brian’s research interests focus on public governance, legislative studies, budgetary politics, political economy and hybrid regimes.

Dr Fong secured Early Career Scheme funding from the Research Grants Council in 2015. As Principal Investigator, he is now leading a pioneering two-and-a-half-year project that is applying the OBS methodology to the assessment of budget openness in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Since joining the Institute in December 2013, Dr Fong has published three books, seven journal articles in leading international peer-reviewed journals and two book chapters in edited books. He was also awarded the prestigious 2014 Gordon White Prize by The China Quarterly and his article, "The Partnership between Chinese Government and Hong Kong's Capitalist Class: Implications for HKSAR Governance, 1997 – 2012" was regarded as "the most original article/research report published in The China Quarterly in the relevant year".

In August 2015, Dr Fong was appointed Associate Director of the Academy of Hong Kong Studies (AHKS), a newly established Institute-level Research and Development Centre in August 2015, charged with the responsibility of developing the centre. Since then, he has rolled out various initiatives including the Hong Kong Future Dialogue Series, the Global City Roundtable, an international summer school, a summer seminar for postgraduates, a seminar series for secondary schools and a telephone laboratory.

Dr Fong is a public intellectual and is very active in community services. He is Vice-Chairman of SynergyNet, a local policy think-tank. Dr Fong is currently a member of the Subsidised Housing Committee of the Housing Authority and member of the Secretary for Transport and Housing’s Youth Focus Group. He regularly publishes commentaries in leading local newspapers such as Ming Pao and the South China Morning Post, and is also an active commentator for various local electronic media such as Radio Television of Hong Kong and Now TV.