Coronavirus battle before reforms: Hong Kong’s fifth wave pushes Carrie Lam’s ambitious government overhaul to the back burner
- ‘Little time to prepare for bureau shake-up’ as whole government is focused on fighting Covid-19
- Lam’s blueprint delayed but not dead, chief executive-elect will have to decide next moves
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s grand plan of overhauling the government has been derailed by the city’s worst coronavirus outbreak, with sources indicating that the revamp will now have to be left to the next administration.
The shake-up, the first in 15 years and announced by Lam in January, affected roughly half the current government bureaus and needed Beijing’s endorsement.
Analysts said they expected it would still proceed, but agreed that the reforms now had lower priority than the ongoing fifth wave of Covid-19 infections.
The blueprint involved raising the number of policy bureaus from 13 to 15, including introducing a new Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and splitting the current Transport and Housing Bureau into two.
The new Housing Bureau would be devoted to resolving the city’s serious housing shortage, while the Transport and Logistics Bureau would focus on infrastructure and consolidating Hong Kong’s status as an aviation hub.
The Environment Bureau would be turned into the Environment and Ecology Bureau, overseeing food safety, environmental hygiene as well as agriculture and fisheries. The existing Food and Health Bureau would become the Health Bureau, focusing solely on medical and health policies.
At the time Lam announced the reforms, Hong Kong’s chief executive election was set for March 27. The government promised to “get everything ready” by the end of March, so the chief executive-elect could proceed with appointing top talent to lead the bureaus and the changes could be approved by the Legislative Council by May.