Highlights of CY Leung’s Policy Address 2014

(Credits: China Daily)

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, CY Leung, delivered a policy address, entitled “Support the Needy, Let Youth Flourish, Unleash Hong Kong's Potential”, at the Legislative Council last Wednesday. Leung said the government is committed to promoting economic development, improving people's livelihood and taking forward constitutional development for more effective governance. “We seek change while maintaining stability, adopt an appropriately proactive approach, attach importance to long-term planning and have abandoned the mindset of focusing on short-term needs,” Leung said.

The highlights of the policy address are summarised as follows:

Tackling poverty

Upon setting Hong Kong’s first official poverty line in 2013, Leung pledged to spend about HK$3 billlion (US$387 million) a year to help tackle poverty. The government said it aimed to help more than 200,000 low-income families as more than 1.3 million people, or 19.6 percent of the population, lived below the poverty line in 2012.

Housing policies

The government said it would increase the maximum number of dwellings that can be built on a piece of land by 20 percent for some densely populated areas, which analysts said would increase short-term supply but create more cramped conditions. The government would raise the target for the completion of private units each year over the next five years by 40 percent, to 13,600 from an average of 9,680 over the past five years. The government raised the forecast for public housing supply over the next 10 years by 36 percent. The government aims to provide an average of about 20,000 public rental housing units and about 8,000 cheaper government units for sale a year.

Environmental policies

Leung announced no significant steps to reduce pollution, with just a few measures including lowering the sulphur content of local marine diesel from 0.5 percent to 0.05 percent, and ocean-going vessels at berth in Hong Kong.

Education

The government also announced steps to boost education including subsidies for poor students, exchange programmes and raising the number of slots for higher education. In particular, the government agreed to provide up to 100 scholarships for outstanding local students to study at the world's best universities.

Despite an increase in approval for the measures to combat poverty, satisfaction levels with the policy address are lower than last year as reflected by polls performed by the University of Hong Kong. The policy address said little in response to appeals for greater democracy. Regina Ip said the Chief Executive's policy address, though admirably responsive to livelihood concerns, notably lacks a plan to propel Hong Kong to the next stage of its development. While Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman, Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong, said the government "deserves much praise" for its poverty alleviation plans, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah warned on Sunday that fears that public spending was rising too fast were "not without reason". Writing on his blog, Tsang said that while the government could afford the cost for the foreseeable future, the day would come when surpluses turned to deficits.