A simple monoculture system, combined with a chemically defined medium containing hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and G5 supplement, was used to induce rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (rESC) directly into neuroepithelial (NE) cells. Under these conditions, the generation of NE cells did not require the formation of embryoid bodies or co-culture with other cell types. The NE cells could further develop to generate neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. These results demonstrate a simple approach to obtain enriched and expandable populations of neural progenitors. Importantly, unlike other systems, the neural progenitors obtained using this approach may possess the potential to differentiate into various regional neural cells. Finally, the results suggest that the time-dependent shift in the differentiation potential of the rESC-derived neural progenitors in vitro reflects the developmental events that occur during neurogenesis in vivo. Thus, this system can be used to study the mechanisms of cell fate specification during non-human primate neurogenesis.