Hong Kong Political System and Mainland Affairs Bureau: Five-year plan to make Hong Kong development more visionary and sustainable, aiming to be launched in the third quarter.

On June 15, the first public consultation on the five-year plan in Hong Kong began. The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Erick Tsang, met with the media to give opening remarks and answer questions. She stated that the five-year plan provides a clear direction for overall society, allowing Hong Kong's development to be more visionary and sustainable. The five-year plan, the Policy Address, and the Budget are complementary, and the Hong Kong SAR government will integrate the five-year plan with the annual Policy Address and Budget. Tsang also mentioned that aligning with China's "14th Five-Year Plan" does not mean replacing the free market, but rather starting with clear visions and strategic deployments from major policies, enabling the market to have more stable and clear development. After completing the public consultation, the authorities hope to launch the five-year plan in the third quarter. The full text is as follows: Remarks and Q&A by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs at the media session: Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: Good morning, everyone. As announced by the Chief Executive last Tuesday, the Hong Kong SAR Government today released a public consultation document to kick off the public consultation on the Hong Kong five-year plan. The consultation period will run from today until August 14, lasting for two months. This year marks the beginning of China's "14th Five-Year Plan." As a blueprint and action plan for China's economic and social development for the next five years, the SAR government will use China's "14th Five-Year Plan" as an important guideline to formulate its first five-year plan, actively aligning with the vast opportunities brought to Hong Kong by China's "14th Five-Year Plan" to promote Hong Kong's better integration and service to national development. As mentioned by the Chief Executive earlier, the Hong Kong five-year plan is a forward-looking, strategic, and operational guiding document. It will clearly explain Hong Kong's development vision and strategic direction for the next five years, covering areas such as economy, industry, spatial planning, infrastructure, green transformation, as well as healthcare, education, housing, welfare, elderly care, and other aspects of people's livelihood, guiding Hong Kong's economic and social development for the next five years, giving citizens expectations for their future lives. The Hong Kong five-year plan will focus on leveraging Hong Kong's unique advantages under the "one country, two systems" framework, consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's position as an international financial, shipping, and trade center; accelerating the development of Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology center; speeding up the construction of the Northern Metropolis, and actively playing the role of a core engine of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, through "leaning on the motherland, connecting with the world," in the new development pattern of national "dual circulation," playing the roles of "participants" and "facilitators," helping Hong Kong better integrate and serve the national development, promote high-quality development, and enable citizens to enjoy more development dividends. For the overall society, the five-year plan points the way, making Hong Kong's development more visionary and sustainable. Citizens can better understand the space for their personal development, businesses can more easily deploy the future, and society will be more prosperous and stable. The significance of Hong Kong's first five-year plan is closely related to every citizen. The public consultation document, as well as the entire consultation process, aims to gather opinions from all sectors of society and build consensus. Under the joint research and opinion collection mechanism of the government and the Legislative Council (coordinated mechanism), members of the Legislative Council have compiled reports and opinion summaries, which have been submitted to the Chief Executive. Here, we thank all members of the Legislative Council for their support and efforts, as well as many National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference representatives, different industry groups, and organizations for sharing their opinions and research on the preparation of Hong Kong's first five-year plan with us. Today, the SAR government has released the public consultation document for Hong Kong's first five-year plan. We hope that all legislators, industry, and citizens will actively participate, provide opinions, and together build Hong Kong's future, creating a new scenario for Hong Kong. The public consultation document in my hand will be distributed at the Civil Affairs Consultation Centers in all 18 districts starting today and will also be uploaded to a dedicated website. Citizens can submit their opinions through the dedicated website, email, or mail. During the consultation period, the government will hold various consultation activities to listen to the opinions of legislators, industry, and citizens. Thank you all. Reporter: What is the relationship between the Hong Kong five-year plan and the Policy Address and Budget? Will it replace the Policy Address? Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: The Hong Kong five-year plan, Policy Address, and Budget are complementary and closely coordinated. The Hong Kong five-year plan, as I mentioned earlier, is a top-level strategic and guiding document that outlines important tasks to guide Hong Kong's development direction for the next five years. The SAR government will organically integrate the Hong Kong five-year plan with the annual Policy Address and Budget. The Hong Kong five-year plan is a top-level strategic direction, and the annual policy deployment and optimal allocation of financial resources will help advance our key development and vision under the five-year plan, gradually realizing progress for Hong Kong's future development. Reporter: By actively aligning with China's "14th Five-Year Plan," does it mean that Hong Kong will implement a planned economy? Also, how will Hong Kong deeply integrate with cities in the Greater Bay Area such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the five-year plan? Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: Thank you. Hong Kong has always adhered to the principles of "one country, two systems" and a free market economy with market-led and government-driven core principles. Aligning with China's "14th Five-Year Plan" does not mean replacing the free market, but rather starting with clear visions and strategic deployments from major policies to enable the market to have more stable and clear development. Many important development opportunities in the future require long-term planning, and major economies in the world all have long-term planning for the future. China transitioned from a planned economy to a planned economy during the "11th Five-Year Plan," so a planned economy is not the same as our current five-year plan. The five-year plan is a forward-looking, strategic, and operational document. Reporter: Will the authorities set some work indicators in the five-year plan? Additionally, because the Chief Executive has previously mentioned that he hopes to announce the five-year plan by the end of the third quarter, but the consultation process will last two months until mid-August, will there be enough time to capture public opinion for in-depth analysis? Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: Thank you. As mentioned earlier, the Hong Kong five-year plan is a strategic, forward-looking, and operational document. As seen in the national planning context, a five-year plan only has some large-scale indicators, while the finer indicators will be presented in the government's work reports. In Hong Kong, our annual Policy Addresses have many detailed indicators, so there won't be many indicators in the five-year plan that are already in the Policy Address because it is a forward-looking document. The process is not easy because we have received many research reports and opinions, but we have been working hard. All policy bureaus under the leadership of the Chief Executive will continue to work diligently to ensure that we can launch the five-year plan in the third quarter.