HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s new leader John Lee delivered his maiden policy address annual policy address on Wednesday, mapping out his priorities for the former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Some of the highlights include;
POLITICS
– Social stability is the prerequisite for our development, and we have to get rid of any interference
– The Government will introduce into the Legislative Council (LegCo) amendments to the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance within the current legislative year to align with the National Flag and National Emblem Ordinance and the National Anthem Ordinance as appropriate.
– The Government will establish the Steering Committee on Rule of Law Education, to be chaired by the Secretary for Justice, to launch a new “Rule of Law Education Train-the-Trainers Programme” for promoting consistent and correct messages on the rule of law in the community.
– To strengthen the civil service management system to clearly spell out the core values and standards of conduct that present-day civil servants should uphold, and put the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” into practice
ATTRACT ENTERPRISES, TALENTS
– Over the past two years, the local workforce shrank by about 140,000. Apart from actively nurturing and retaining local talents, the government will proactively trawl the world for talents.
– Lee: We must be more proactive and aggressive in “competing for enterprises” and “competing for talents”.
– To set aside HK$30 billion from the Future Fund to establish the Co-Investment Fund for attracting enterprises to set up operations in Hong Kong and investing in their business.
– To launch the Top Talent Pass Scheme to widely entice talents to pursue their careers in Hong Kong
– To allow eligible incoming talents to, upon becoming permanent residents, apply for a refund of the extra stamp duty paid for purchasing residential property in Hong Kong.
– Individuals who graduated from the world’s top 100 universities in the past five years and have yet to fulfil the work experience requirement will be eligible for Top Talent Pass Scheme, subject to an annual quota of 10,000.
– To review the labour shortage situation in the construction and transport sectors respectively to draw up relevant solutions.
ECONOMY
– To set up a new Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC) to further optimise the use of fiscal reserves for promoting the development of industries and the economy, and to attract and support more enterprises to develop their business in Hong Kong.
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE
– The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) will revise the Main Board Listing Rules next year to facilitate fundraising of advanced technology enterprises that have yet to meet the profit and trading record requirements.
– HKEX is also planning to revitalise GEM (formally known as the Growth Enterprise Market) to provide small and medium enterprises and start-ups with a more effective fundraising platform.
– To enhance strengths as the largest offshore renminbi (RMB) business centre, to promote the launch of more RMB-denominated investment tools and to enhance market infrastructure
– To introduce a bill within this year to exempt the stamp duty payable for transactions conducted by dual-counter market makers, with a view to enhancing the RMB stock trading mechanism.
– To complete preparations for the launch of the Northbound Trading of Swap Connect as early as possible, and to explore enhancements to the Southbound Trading of Bond Connect to facilitate the issuance and trading of more diverse “dim sum” bonds.
– To develop Hong Kong into an international carbon market.
– To introduce a bill within this year to offer a tax concession to eligible family offices – a key growth segment of the asset and wealth management industry – with the target to attract at least 200 family offices to establish or expand their operations in Hong Kong by end-2025.
– The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has begun the preparatory work for issuing “e-HKD” (e-Hong Kong dollar) and is collaborating with the Mainland institutions to expand the testing of “e-CNY” (e-Chinese yuan) as a cross-boundary payment facility in Hong Kong.
(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
