The Hong Kong government actively aligns with the national "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, and makes vigorous efforts to promote high-quality development.

On March 12, the Fourth Session of the Fourteenth National People's Congress passed the "Outline of the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China." Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stated that the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" is a blueprint and action plan for the future five-year economic and social development of the country. The main goals set for this period include achieving significant results in high-quality development, substantial improvement in self-reliance and strength in science and technology, making new breakthroughs in further comprehensive and deepening reform, significantly enhancing social civilization, continuously improving people's quality of life, making new progress in building a beautiful China, and further strengthening the national security barrier. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is deeply encouraged by this and will actively align with the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," contributing to further comprehensive and deepening reform and promoting Hong Kong's contribution to China's modernization. John Lee Ka-chiu expressed heartfelt gratitude for the steadfast support and care from the country towards Hong Kong, as mentioned in the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," which proposes multiple measures to promote long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and deepen the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. He will lead the Hong Kong SAR Government in fulfilling its role as the first responsible person, uniting all sectors of society to actively cooperate and align with the national "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan." The government will establish a systemic policy framework to make more comprehensive, precise, and meticulous strategic deployment in key development areas and formulate the first "Hong Kong Five-Year Plan." The preparatory groups set up by various policy bureaus earlier, as instructed by him, have now been converted into the "Hong Kong Five-Year Plan Preparation Group," which will expedite the drafting of the Hong Kong Five-Year Plan and complete related work within this year. John Lee Ka-chiu stated that the first "Hong Kong Five-Year Plan" aligned with the national "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" will have profound implications and serve as a common action plan for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, outlining the development vision, core goals, key areas, and major initiatives for the next five years. It will provide a clear guide for the social, economic, and livelihood development of Hong Kong, promoting better integration with and service to the country's overall development. The "Hong Kong Five-Year Plan" will bring the most direct benefits to Hong Kong, stemming from the strong support for national development behind it. As the world's second-largest economy, the country provides Hong Kong with immense market drive and development opportunities. With the country's leading position in fields such as innovation technology, artificial intelligence, big data, and infrastructure construction, Hong Kong can leverage the national industrial ecosystem and development to achieve a leapfrog development of its emerging industries. For example, in the financial sector, Hong Kong can leverage the national strategy to promote the internationalization of the RMB, strengthen its role as a global offshore RMB business hub, and enhance its international financial center status through optimization of connectivity and consolidate and enhance its international financial center status; in the innovation and technology field, Hong Kong can expedite production, academic, and research synergies through the construction of the "Northern Metropolis District"; in the field of industrial upgrading, Hong Kong can integrate into national strategies such as "Artificial Intelligence +" to empower its traditional advantageous industries and enhance its new quality production capacity in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. To ensure the smooth progress of the drafting work, John Lee Ka-chiu will lead the work, with the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office taking the lead and the Heads of Departments fully promoting and participating. He is confident that with unity and joint efforts, the first "Hong Kong Five-Year Plan" will become a guiding document leading Hong Kong to create new prospects and achieve new leaps, laying a more solid foundation for long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong, demonstrating a new role and new contributions from Hong Kong in its integration with and service to the country's overall development. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" expressly states the firm commitment to uphold the principles of "One Country, Two Systems," "Hong Kong People Governing Hong Kong," and a high degree of autonomy, implement the principle of "patriots governing Hong Kong," enhance the effectiveness of governance in Hong Kong, promote economic and social development in Hong Kong, and leverage Hong Kong's unique advantages and important role backed by the motherland and connected with the world. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" supports Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial center, shipping center, trade hub, and international aviation hub, strengthening its role as the global offshore RMB business hub, international asset and wealth management center, and international risk management center, supporting Hong Kong in building an international innovation and technology center, deepening the construction of international legal and dispute settlement service centers, regional intellectual property trade centers, and cultural and artistic exchange centers. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" has, for the first time, included support for Hong Kong in building a commodity trading ecosystem and a high-value-added supply chain service center, as well as explicitly supporting the acceleration of the Northern Metropolis District construction and the creation of an international high-end talent aggregation highland in Hong Kong. A government spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region expressed deep encouragement for the solid support from the central government, stating that Hong Kong will seize the opportunity to actively align with the national strategic requirements, converting the new positioning, functions, and tasks assigned by the central government to Hong Kong into tangible results to drive high-quality economic development and improve people's livelihoods. The Northern Metropolis District is an important strategic development area for Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong SAR Government is actively promoting its development, attracting more leading enterprises by implementing innovative cooperation models such as zone development and preferential policy packages to transform this land connected to the mainland's mountains and seas into a new engine for Hong Kong's economic development. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" emphasizes the need to strengthen economic and trade, scientific and technological, and cultural cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland, improve policies and measures to facilitate Hong Kong residents' development and living in the mainland, and orderly promote connectivity between Hong Kong and mainland financial markets. For the first time, the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" explicitly states the need to deepen cooperation in innovation creation, research, and development with the mainland, continue to promote breakthroughs in key areas of cooperation, promote coordinated development of ports, airports, and rail transport, advance preliminary work on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Railway, construct major cooperation platforms such as Hesui, and improve the mechanism for Hong Kong to better play a role in the country's opening-up, support Hong Kong's deep participation in the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, leverage its professional service advantages to assist enterprises in "going out," and play an important role as a window for exchange and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations. A government spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region stated that Hong Kong, under the framework of "One Country, Two Systems," has the advantage of internal connection and external communication. It will fully leverage its international and market-oriented characteristics to promote connectivity with the mainland. The Hong Kong SAR Government has established a special team to assist mainland companies in "going global," aligning with the growing productivity of the mainland, Hong Kong's internationally renowned professional services, and the eager needs of global buyers to facilitate enterprises in expanding internationally and attracting international capital, to solidly promote high-quality economic development. In terms of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Hong Kong SAR Government will actively align with relevant platform construction, deepen connectivity and cooperation with city rules in the Greater Bay Area, and promote the convenient flow of innovative factors across borders. The Fourth Session of the Fourteenth National People's Congress also passed the "National Development Planning Law," which is the first legislation specifically focusing on national development planning from a top-level design perspective, providing a rigid legal basis for the formulation of plans. A government spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remarked that the "National Development Planning Law" provides principled provisions for Hong Kong to actively align with national development planning, clearly stating that the country upholds the principle of "One Country, Two Systems" and supports the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to actively align with national development planning, integrate with and serve the country's overall development, fully reflecting the central government's strong support for Hong Kong to align with national development planning, providing solid legal safeguards for Hong Kong to better integrate with and serve the country's overall development, beneficial for Hong Kong to better leverage its unique advantages under "One Country, Two Systems," deeply align with the national overall development strategy, and realize the service of "Hong Kong's strengths" for "national needs," enabling Hong Kong to integrate with and serve the country's overall development better. A government spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region pointed out that this year marks the beginning of the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" and a crucial year for Hong Kong to transition from governance to revitalization. With strong support from the national "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," the government will continue to consolidate and enhance its international competitiveness, deepen international exchanges and cooperation, enhance the bridging role of internal and external communication, forge a new path for high-quality development in Hong Kong, better integrate with and serve the country's overall development, and contribute to the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.