Govt holds 5-Year Plan consultation meetings

The government held consultation meetings for the five-year plan, having invited representatives from chambers of commerce.

Some chambers hope the government could set clear, quantifiable targets for the Northern Metropolis development and assist SMEs to go global.

For the city's inaugural five-year plan, the government has invited multiple chambers of commerce to attend the consultation session at the government headquarters.

Attendees include Andrew Yao, vice chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Peter Shum, deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, and Simon Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants.

The meeting was hosted by Financial Secretary Paul Chan and Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau and attended by Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong.

The consultation period will run for two months until August 14. The government will also hold a series of consultation sessions during the period.

ANDREW YAO, Vice-Chairman, The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, HK: "During infrastructure spending, we got to be attracting industry. If we look at our own country's Beijing's 15th Five Year Plan, there are 109 different sector investments that are close to a trillion dollars. We should be helping those companies go global through Hong Kong, so that we can have new products, new service and new employment."

WENDY LAM, Director of Policy & Research, HK General Chamber of Commerce: "Regarding the development of the Northern Metropolis, the Chamber will advocate the government to have a holistic and strategic KPI to oversee the development of the Northern Metropolis. And also, we think that the infrastructure is very important, especially on the data centres and the computing centres. So this must be given the priority."

ALFRED NG, Deputy Chairman, Federation of HK Industries: "Apart from just the R&D, we also need a lot of technicians. We also need to train up local students to prepare for the future."

Pui Kwan-kay, President of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers' and Exporters' Association hopes policy directions could be pragmatic and strategic within a macro blueprint, targeting the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Uzbekistan.