Cutting red tape high on agenda at Hong Kong leader’s meetings ahead of policy address
Meetings with advisers held ahead of chief executive’s fourth policy address to gather views on city’s development
Hong Kong’s leader has held meetings with advisers, including two tech bosses from Hangzhou’s “Six Little Dragons” and a top mainland Chinese economist, to gauge their views on the city’s development ahead of his annual policy blueprint, with cutting red tape coming up in the discussions.
A source familiar with the meetings, chaired by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and held between Wednesday and Friday, said that a major topic of discussion was improving government efficiency to boost Hong Kong’s economic and technological development.
The three lunch meetings marked the first gathering of the Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers since the appointments of Han Bicheng, CEO of BrainCo, which specialises in brain-machine interfaces, Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics, and Zhu Min, ex-deputy director of the International Monetary Fund and former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China.
Lee said on Saturday that his advisers’ contributions provided important references for Hong Kong’s overall development strategies, as he highlighted the presence of the three new members from the mainland.
“During the meeting, they emphasised that Hong Kong is bestowed with its unique advantages of connecting with both the mainland and the world, excellent education and research capabilities, and advantageous geographical location, and it is also an international financial centre with free flow of capital,” Lee said.
“These advantages will greatly attract mainland enterprises to list in Hong Kong and use the city as the gateway to go global.”