HONG KONG, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Friday conferred honorary degrees on three outstanding individuals, including e-commerce giant Alibaba's Chairman Ma Yun.

HKU held the 199th Congregation on Friday to confer honorary degrees on Ma and two other outstanding individuals, in recognition of their distinguished service and commitment to the university, the community, and to academia.

Ma was awarded Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa. After revolutionizing e-commerce in China and around the world, Ma has committed himself to improving the state of the world through culture, entrepreneurship and education, according to HKU's citation.

Delivering a speech on behalf of the honorary graduates, Ma said that Hong Kong used to be the hub for trade and only by changing, Hong Kong could be the new hub of trade of the world and it should capitalize on its own advantage and become the pioneer of fin-tech.

Ma said in the next 30 years, the new technology is going to change every aspect of the world and bring challenges to education.

"I think we have to change from now the education system," he said, adding that in the future, it is not about the competition of knowledge, but the competition of creativity, imagination, learning, and independent thinking.

In the ceremony, Mong Tak Yeung and Tang Ching Wan were awarded Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa and Doctor of Science honoris causa respectively.

Yeung is chairman and chief executive officer of the Shun Hing Group. He is an active philanthropic entrepreneur and has contributed substantially to improving the well-being of diverse sectors of society in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and overseas.

Tang, a professor of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is best known for his work on organic optoelectronics and has been recognized for the invention of the Organic Light Emitting Diode.