An engineering expert on Monday called on youngsters to sign up for positions in the national manned space programme, saying the recruitment shows the central government’s trust in Hong Kong as well as its education system.

Professor Wong Kam-fai from the Chinese University’s Systems Engineering and Engineering Management Department described Beijing’s move as “opening up all doors” to Hong Kong.

“If you think about it, this is something sort of very high security. This is about a space mission. There's a lot of very important critical information, even including military information. And this sort of project shows that the central government, they do really trust Hong Kong,” Wong said.

On Sunday, mainland authorities invited the Hong Kong and Macau governments to nominate payload specialist candidates for the manned space programme. Potential recruits should be aged between 30 and 45, are physically fit, and have engaged in the relevant fields for at least three years.

When asked about the chances of Hongkongers being accepted into the programme, Wong said the most important thing is for people to make a move and sign up.

“When people step forward and apply, that shows several things. The first thing is that they are very confident in their research and they are very ambitious to advance their dream,” he said.

“But as to how many people can actually eventually get onto the spaceship, it is an open competition… There are only two spaces eventually. [The fact that] our people in Hong Kong are bold enough are confident enough to step forward – I think this is the first thing that we have to ensure.”