[Image above by HKTB]
New towns, new institutions, new ventures in technology, culture, finance, education and tourism: There was a wealth of plans revealed in Hong Kong in recent days. Prof Herman Hu reviews the Five-Year Plan and the Policy Address.
WHY IS PLANNING IMPORTANT? Because “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” So said the celebrated French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He was one of many famous thinkers who emphasized the crucial importance of planning.
But I prefer the adage of the famous US sports manager, Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
That’s a simple, smart thinking. We’ve got a much better chance of getting to our destination if we have identified it.
And so it was that the Hong Kong government just launched its first Five-Year Plan, identifying key areas of focus, and managing to keep the city’s future steps integrated with those of the country.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the decision was criticized from over the Pacific Ocean. The Wall St Journal devoted a whole editorial to attacking Hong Kong’s decision on the basis that the words “five-year plan” sound like a phrase from Mainland China.
It’s a shallow criticism and we can reply by pointing to the words of someone very often quoted in the Wall Street Journal: former US President Dwight Eisenhower said: “Plans are nothing, but planning is everything.”
WELCOMED BY BUSINESS
By any measure, the Hong Kong government’s first five-year plan is deep and broad: It covers technology, finance, culture and tourism, education, people’s livelihood, and urban renewal.
And here’s a key fact: It’s been welcomed by the business community. This makes sense. People in major commercial enterprises have to plan ahead, and it’s very helpful to let them know roughly what policies are in place, and what goals are being targeted for the next half decade.
For a huge range of major projects, from property investment to building retail chains to investing in commodities, advance information is advantageous information.
Full details of the five-year plan are easily available on the Hong Kong government’s own website—click here to see those. We won’t duplicate them here, but we’ll consider some highlights.
Artificial intelligence is good tool to deal with complex projects, so Hong Kong now has an AI City Plan: think of it as this smart city’s brain. The project aims to comprehensively promote the deep application of artificial intelligence in urban management, public services, and various industries, creating a benchmark for smart cities.
Hong Kong has long been interested in the low-altitude economy: think of drone deliveries and flying taxies. The city will focus on taking the lead in establishing regulations, safety, and technical standards for the low-altitude economy, gaining international influence in this emerging field.
Many of the elements in the plan deal with finance, since we are very much a global financial capital. The city plans to launch an internationally influential gold futures event. China has already become the world’s biggest gold producer, so it’s logical that Hong Kong should take a gold investment position on that fact.
Two of most exciting trends in Hong Kong go together. One is the development of an extraordinary new area called the Northern Metropolis, covering an area almost one third of the whole of Hong Kong’s landmass. The other is the development of new universities to add to our current halls of learning. We already have more universities in the top 100 than any other city in the world. Education is clearly our strength. So some of the new establishments will be within the Northern Metropolis.
But societies are not all about money and property. Culture is as important, or more important—so the five year plan sees investment in culture in multiple ways: the development of a historical museum of intangible culture—and of course plenty of events, activities and landmarks to give the public opportunities for interaction with Chinese culture.
AND A POLICY ADDRESS TOO…
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee has been very busy—on the same day that he announced the Five-Year Plan, he also unveiled Hong Kong’s annual Policy Address.
Again, the full details of the Policy Address are available elsewhere. You can click this link. But let’s take a look at highlights.
The new Policy Address as a whole has concrete and pragmatic deployments in innovation and technology, the economy, people’s livelihoods, and regional development, which is encouraging; however, given the challenge of a declining birth rate, there is still room for improvement in attempts to deal with the baby shortage. We’ll get back to that.
As mentioned above, an AI city brain will make city’s operational systems smarter. But we also like solid, tangible developments, and the policy address featured five:
– Establishment of an International Gold Trading Market;
– Founding of a Maritime Academy;
– Launching of the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Academy;
– Boosting of the International Legal Talent Training Academy; and
– Establishing of the Hong Kong International Police Academy.
These will further consolidate Hong Kong’s leading international position in finance, law, and professional training, and increasing its substantial contributions to the international community.
As a tennis enthusiast, I am very pleased with the Policy Address’s measures supporting the development of culture, sports, and tourism, especially the study on redeveloping Victoria Park Tennis Court into an all-weather, multi-purpose venue.
This not only optimizes local sports infrastructure but also lays a solid foundation for Hong Kong to host more international events and competitions in the future.
Hopes for Further Strengthening of Fertility Policies
Now a criticism: The measures proposed to promote fertility policies remain insufficient. Faced with the severe challenges of an aging population and a declining birth rate, current incentives may not be enough to comprehensively reverse citizens’ willingness to have children.
It is suggested that the government consider more groundbreaking financial subsidies, and more comprehensive workplace childcare support. New housing priority policies to further increase efforts to truly encourage citizens to have children can be implemented to supplement a long-term demographic dividend for Hong Kong.
Still, that criticism aside, overall we would say that this is a Policy Address that balances Hong Kong’s international competitiveness with the well-being of local residents.
Professor Herman Hu is Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress, and Past President of the Hong Kong Professional and Senior Executives Association.
He is also a key figure in the “Friday” news project from Friday Culture Ltd. Click here to read more of his articles.
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