UpdateHong Kong chief executive faces grilling from lawmakers after riding on China’s One Belt, One Road economic strategy in policy address

A day after an annual policy address in which he studiously avoided hot political potatoes and instead dished out an ambitious plan to place Hong Kong at the centre of Beijing’s One Belt, One Road iniatitive, Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying returns to the Legislative Council this morning to face a likely barrage of questions from sceptical lawmakers.

His omission of difficult subjects like Hong Kong-mainland relations, the controversial retirement protection issue and the Mandatory Provident Fund changes will also feature heavily during the debate.

It comes after Leung also used his policy address to commit HK$4.5 billion to various projects aimed at boosting the development of innovation and technology.

The policy speech is seen as make or break for Leung, as it was his last chance to execute a full year of initiatives before his term ends in June next year.

But as Leung devoted a whole chapter of his speech at the Legislative Council yesterday to the belt and road initiative, critics pointed out that he had yet to deliver on earlier policy promises.

READ MORE: ‘One Belt, One Road’ gets record-breaking 48 mentions in Hong Kong chief executive C.Y. Leung’s two-hour policy address

Leung later clarified that he had not given up on outstanding matters such as standardising working hours and retirement protection , as work was ongoing.