This is the 1162nd issue of Hong Kong One Day
The Policy Address will be launched on the 19th and the cover will be green
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lee Ka-chiu, will release his first Policy Address since taking office on Wednesday (19th), and all sectors of Hong Kong society are eagerly awaiting.
Lee Ka Chiu uploaded a video on social media today (17th) and wrote an article saying that the cover of the Policy Address will be green, representing hope, vitality and harmony and stability, and hopes that the report will bring confidence to the public and believe that Hong Kong's future is full of hope.
"He has repeatedly considered the suggestions of all sectors of the community and thanked everyone for their comments in the past three months, and I hope that the citizens will agree that this report is full of hope, and the current HKSAR Government will also actively create opportunities to inject endless momentum into Hong Kong and build a more harmonious society," Lee said. ”
The cover of the Policy Address will be green (Li Jiachao uploaded a screenshot of the video)
In the past few months, the HKSAR Government has held a total of 34 Policy Address consultations, of which 25 were chaired by Lee Ka-chiu. People from all walks of life in Hong Kong have made suggestions and suggestions to the SAR Government, and the number of proposals submitted has reached 6900, showing that the Hong Kong public strongly hopes to contribute to solving the many "stubborn diseases" of Hong Kong's economic and social development.
Lee Ka-chiu attends a regional consultation on the Policy Address on August 20 Source: Information Department of the HKSAR Government
With only two days left in the countdown to the release of the report, Hong Kong media have recently been intensively releasing a series of predictive analyses on the Policy Address. Zhi News noted that although Hong Kong society generally pays attention to important issues such as housing, talent, education, intergenerational poverty, scientific and technological innovation, youth employment, and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the deepest focus of the Hong Kong media is still on housing and talent, the former involving the gap between the rich and the poor, social fairness, etc., and the latter is directly related to youth employment, the lifeblood of economic development and even Hong Kong's international competitiveness being challenged.
In terms of housing policy, Hong Kong media have focused on many policies such as "subdivided housing" (partitioned housing), land and housing supply, and public housing "going upstairs", and believe that the first Policy Address will propose more relevant measures. According to a survey released by the Hong Kong Research Association today, Hong Kong citizens have high expectations for the Policy Address, believing that the three highest priorities for the HKSAR Government are health care, land and housing, and the governance capacity of the HKSAR Government, of which land and housing are ranked second, which shows their importance.
Hong Kong legislator Lau Kwok-hoon put forward a new round of specific proposals on the development of the northern metropolitan area today, which mentioned the proposal to establish a "special department/agency for the northern metropolitan area" to deal with the different areas of housing, land and industry involved. At the same time, Lau stressed the need to streamline land development procedures and amend legislation to compress the development timetable by 3 to 5 years.
According to Hong Kong media "Hong Kong 01", the SAR Government also plans to set up a special department or working group to coordinate the details and progress of the plan of the northern metropolitan area, so it is believed to help accelerate the speed of development. The report also pointed out that Hong Kong's past model of private participation in HOS housing may be "revived", but unlike the old model, the SAR government is considering using private market forces to build public housing, in addition to being responsible for construction, it may also make developers become the providers of land used for housing construction.
Xiangyuanwei Port (Liantang Port) Source: Hong Kong 01
According to public information, the Private Participation HOS Scheme (HOS) is an auxiliary "HOS Scheme" (Homeowners with Housing Scheme) introduced by the British Government of Hong Kong in 1977, which was suspended by the HKSAR Government in 2002 after assessment to increase the volume of housing construction, while at the same time using the financial resources of private developers to speed up the supply of housing and provide opportunities for public housing households and lower-middle-income families.
The report also said that the SAR government is considering taking the lead in the construction of transitional housing, which will be handed over to non-profit organizations (NGOs) when construction is completed. This means that the HKSAR will change or will currently be the practice of locating, constructing and operating by the institutions themselves.
In terms of talent policy, Li Jiachao previously revealed in his 100 days in office that the "Policy Address" will expound on the concept and policy of governance, including "grabbing enterprises and robbing talents". Hong Kong's China News Agency analysis pointed out that from "grabbing talents" to "grabbing enterprises", and putting enterprises before talents, it may be possible to see some minor changes in the Policy Address.
According to the "Point News" report, the "Policy Address" may propose the establishment of a special group or office to coordinate the "talent grab" and will coordinate with a number of policy bureaus such as the Labor and Welfare Bureau, the Innovation and Technology Bureau, and the Commerce and Economic Affairs Bureau of the SAR Government to study how to attract overseas talents to Hong Kong for development.
There are still two days before the official release of the Policy Address, let us wait and see, and look forward to the SAR Government proposing more practical measures to solve deep-seated problems and effectively improve people's livelihood.
National Development and Reform Commission: Fully support Hong Kong and Macao to participate in the construction of the Greater Bay Area
Zhao Chenxin, member of the party group and deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission. (Xinhua News Agency)
Today (17th), at a press conference held by the press center of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zhao Chenxin, member of the party group and deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in response to reporters' questions about the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that remarkable results have been achieved in the past five years since the construction of the Greater Bay Area was implemented, and the life and development of Hong Kong and Macao residents in the mainland has become more convenient.
Zhao Chenxin pointed out that the "1+N" planning policy system in the Greater Bay Area is gradually being built. Hengqin, Qianhai and Nansha, Hetao and other major cooperation platforms are in depth, the construction of international science and technology innovation centers is steadily advancing, the construction of modern industrial systems is accelerating, the interconnection, acceleration and quality improvement of infrastructure are being accelerated, the docking mechanism of rules is constantly strengthening, the living circle of livable and livable and high-quality living is also gradually being built, and the life and development of Hong Kong and Macao residents in the mainland is more convenient. In this process, the Party Central Committee has always regarded supporting Hong Kong and Macao as an important focus and continuously optimized and improved the functions of the central city.
Zhao Chenxin stressed that the CPC Central Committee will fully support Hong Kong and Macao in deeply participating in the construction of the Greater Bay Area, consolidate their international competitive advantages, and enable Hong Kong and Macao to gain broader development space and a steady stream of development momentum from the overall situation of national development.
The Standard Chartered Greater Bay Area Business Climate Index was released to stop falling and rebound
Standard Chartered Bank and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) today (17th) announced the Standard Chartered Greater Bay Area Business Climate Index (GBAI) for the third quarter of 2022, showing that the "business confidence" in the Greater Bay Area was 41.3, while Hong Kong stopped falling and recovered. Among the 11 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong rose by 2.8 points to 42.5 points in the Status Index, ranking first, while Hong Kong improved in the "Expectation Index" by 3 points to 46.3.
In terms of sectors, "financial services" improved in both the "Status Quo Index" (47.3) and the "Expectation Index" (51.5), rising by 7.9 points and 9.1 points respectively. "Innovation Technology" fell the most, with its "Status Index" and "Expectation Index" falling 10.7 points to 39.6 and 15.3 points to 46.0, respectively.
The survey found that respondents tended to be cautious. Fan, Research Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, pointed out that respondents are more optimistic about the Asian market, especially the mainland, followed by Hong Kong and Macau, and ASEAN. She added that she was confident that when the epidemic stabilized and business activities gradually resumed, the relevant business index would continue to grow; Of course, enterprises are still facing a variety of challenges such as slowing demand and large changes in the international situation.
Liu Jianheng, senior economist of Standard Chartered Greater China, said that with the recent relaxation of quarantine measures for inbound tourists in Hong Kong, Hong Kong is expected to continue to maintain the pace of recovery in the next few quarters, but it is negatively affected by external reasons, such as the increasing risk of recession in the West, coupled with the fact that Hong Kong's local market is dragged down by rising interest rates and a weak real estate market, which limits the speed and magnitude of the recovery.
5,361 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Hong Kong Sun Dong pointed out that "safe travel" plays an important role
The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced on the 17th that as of 00:00 on the same day, there were 5,361 new confirmed cases in Hong Kong, and the number of confirmed cases in a single day remained at the level of 5,000 cases for five consecutive days. Among the new cases, 4954 were locally confirmed cases and 407 were imported cases; 5 more deaths.
Recently, there are voices in Hong Kong society that hope that the SAR government will cancel the policy of "safe travel" and replace it with a "vaccine pass", questioning whether "peace of mind" has become obsolete. Hong Kong's Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Sun Dong, said today (17th) on social platforms that "of course not", pointing out that "safe travel" still plays an important role in the current disease tracking and is gradually evolving into a comprehensive service platform for the whole people to fight the epidemic.
Image source: Point News
Sun Dong pointed out that the "vaccine pass" can only be used together with "safe travel" to achieve the best epidemic prevention effect. He explained that "Safe Travel" records the user's recent visits, including food and beverage places, and stores it in the user's mobile phone. If the user is unfortunately diagnosed, the travel record in the "safe travel" can be provided in accordance with the requirements of the CHP, to assist the circulation of the protection center and accelerate the control of the spread of the virus. If only the "vaccine pass" is used, it is impossible to directly know where the confirmed person has recently been through the mobile phone record, which will slow down the tracing of other close contacts.
Sun Dong continued to point out that in addition to adding the electronic version of the user's own "vaccine pass", many other applications recently added, such as "red and yellow codes", "detection registration codes", "parent-child needle cards", etc., if they lose the platform of "safe travel", these applications may not be able to play a role.
Sun Dong said that "safe travel" will be further improved in response to future anti-epidemic needs and become an important line of defense for Hong Kong during the epidemic.