Hong Kong’s first 5-year plan to give firms more long-term certainty: Paul Chan

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will give businesses greater certainty to make long-term investment decisions amid a volatile external environment, the city’s finance chief has said. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the plan’s targets and timelines would allow companies to see the city’s direction over the next five years and better align their plans with the government’s. “The significance of planning lies not only in the document itself, but also in looking at today from the perspective of the future and turning a vision into indicators and action plans that can be reviewed year by year,” Chan wrote in his weekly blog on Sunday. “The more volatile the external environment becomes, the more the market needs certainty that extends beyond a single year.” Hong Kong unveiled its first five-year plan, mapping out the city’s directions between 2026 and 2030, alongside Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address last Wednesday.

Among its targets are the production of 900 hectares (2,224 acres) of formed land in the Northern Metropolis, raising the contribution of manufacturing and new industrialisation to 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product and increasing expenditure on local research and development to 3 per cent of GDP. He said the annual policy address would translate these goals into tangible targets for that year’s work, with specific departments overseeing progress evaluations. Chan said at least 200 hectares of formed land would be produced in the Northern Metropolis over the current and next financial years. All nine new development areas in the megaproject had been launched, with work under way in four of them covering about 800 hectares, he added.

Chan outlined how different sites would support the innovation and technology sector. He said the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau Loop would focus largely on research and development, while San Tin Technopole would provide space for pilot testing and mass production. The Sandy Ridge Data Park would provide computing power, completing a chain extending from research and development to production and the market, he said. More than 100 technology companies and institutions have moved into the Hong Kong side of the Loop, while its two wet laboratory buildings are fully leased.

This is a short excerpt. EkJhalak links out rather than reproducing other newsrooms’ work — continue at South China Morning Post.