Speed up innovation, create jobs key facets of next Hong Kong budget: Paul Chan
Finance chief says public consultation for next budget will start soon and he ‘looks forward’ to ideas from residents
Accelerating innovation and creating more jobs will be key goals of the next annual budget, Hong Kong’s finance chief has said, while pointing to positive investor sentiment after several companies recently bought or leased commercial properties in the city.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also said in his weekly blog post on Sunday that public consultations for the next budget would start soon.
“Key issues will include how to further expand the facets and areas of economic development, accelerate the nurturing and application of innovation and technology, speed up the optimisation of the industrial structure, create more quality employment positions and inject momentum into high-quality development,” he said.
The finance chief added that he “looked forward” to more specific suggestions from the public.
He noted that investor and commercial expectations remained positive, with the pace of investment expenditure accelerating.
“In recent months, financial institutions and large e-commerce platforms have successively leased or purchased multiple floors of commercial space or even entire commercial buildings, strengthening their deployment in Hong Kong to explore mainland China and international business,” Chan said.