CY Leung’s policy address targets housing supply, the retired poor and attracting talent

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying pledged to boost long-term land supply to ease the housing crunch and announced new measures to attract talent from the mainland and overseas in his third annual policy address.

Those measures include a pilot scheme “to attract the second generation of Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents who have emigrated overseas to return to Hong Kong” and the suspension from tomorrow of the capital investment entrant scheme.

Thousands of mainland millionaires have migrated to Hong Kong through the scheme, which since 2003 has allowed people to gain residence in the city by investing no less than HK$10 million in the local markets.

The scheme had attracted nearly 40,000 people, of whom more than 90 per cent were from the mainland, official data showed.

Leung also promised to do more for more retired needy citizens, earmarking HK$50 billion for such future needs.

In a speech that went over many initiatives on housing already spelt out earlier, Leung hinted that the government may also have to reconsider country parks as it scours for more developable land.