Three surprises and two omissions: Leung Chun-ying’s last full-term Hong Kong policy address
Intriguingly, chief executive surprises on ‘Belt and Road’, IT and law reform, but says nothing on Lee Bo and political reform
It’s the time of year again when Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying walks into the Legislative Council chamber, gets barracked by pan-democrat lawmakers and spends about two hours unveiling his policy address. But before you yawn, this year was different because it was Leung’s last full-year address in his current term. While he will deliver his final current-term address next year, he will not be able to deliver initiatives for a full year because the chief executive election takes place in early 2017. So what are the surprises and omissions in this year’s policy address?
Surprise 1
Forty-eight times. That’s how many times the “Belt and Road” initiative appears in the policy address. While the glossy 76-page report boasts of “Innovate for the Economy, Improve Livelihood, Foster Harmony and Share Prosperity” on the first page, the Beijing-led “Belt and Road” initiative has definitely taken centre stage. Leung attached so much importance to it – indeed shortening the name from “One Belt, One Road” – that it came right after he spoke about the city’s economy and ahead of livelihood issues such as housing, education and health care. He dedicated a whole chapter to the initiative and then incorporated it in livelihood issues – for example the government will “promote Hong Kong’s tertiary education in the Belt and Road countries to recruit students for undergraduate courses in Hong Kong”.
Surprise 2
Leung wowed people in the IT sector by announcing a new HK$2 billion government matching fund to boost investment in IT. This is much more than the HK$500 million touted earlier. The money will be set aside to set up the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund, which will match private venture capital funds. And his game plan on IT doesn’t stop there. Cyberport, which houses start-up incubation schemes and co-working spaces catering to the city’s 1,600 start-ups, will provide HK$200 million to launch a Cyberport macro Fund to invest in technology start-ups. Not in the IT sector? No worries. The government will double the number of Wi-fi hot spots within three years to 34,000 in public areas including parks. Not confident about network speed and security? The existing speed in government venues will be progressively doubled and security enhanced.
Surprise 3
The Hong Kong leader has proposed a series of laws – even though proposed government legislation such as the controversial copyright bill become bogged down amid Legco filibustering. Leung said the government would start the legislative process as soon as possible to ban the import and export of elephant hunting trophies and, at the same time, consider enacting a law to further ban the import and export of ivory with the aim of eventually phasing out the local ivory trade. In addition, the government will consider the regulation of electronic cigarettes through legislation and tighten the regulation of private health care facilities by establishing a new regulatory regime to ensure patient safety and protect consumer rights.
Omission 1
Bookseller Lee Bo of Causeway Bay Books, which specialises in publications critical of the Chinese Communist Party, has been missing for 15 days. Four of his associates likewise vanished in October. And the chief executive did not say anything about them. He also steered clear of talking about the city’s constitutional development, which was the first chapter in his policy address last year. And there was only a very brief mention of the city’s core values – rule of law, democracy and determination to uphold “one country, two systems” – in his concluding remarks.
Omission 2
There was little talk of livelihood measures that Hong Kong people were expecting, including plans to scrap or review the Mandatory Provident Fund’s controversial offsetting mechanism, a clear schedule of what to do after the standard working hours committee submits its report in the first quarter of this year and what is to be done after the consultation on retirement protection is completed.
