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POLITICS55m agoHong Kong’s HK$30,000 bonus for second child among 11 new measures to boost birthsHong Kong authorities have rolled out 11 new initiatives to encourage residents to have children, including an expanded cash bonus scheme and a reduced down payment for subsidised housing for parents with newborns. In the latest policy address delivered on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced that the HK$20,000 (US$2,550) newborn bonus scheme, expiring on October 24, would be extended for another three years. He added that the cash bonus for second and subsequent children would...South China Morning Post
POLITICS3h agoHong Kong’s first five-year plan seeks to boost innovationHong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu presented the city’s first ever five-year plan, including steps to bolster innovation, birth rates and financial activity. The city aims to raise spending on innovation to 3 per cent of gross domestic product after 2030 from 1.63 per cent in 2024, Lee said as he announced the plan on Wednesday alongside the traditional annual policy address. There were also steps to accelerate construction of the tech-focused Northern Metropolis megaproject on the...South China Morning Post
POLITICS10h agoHistoric moment for Hong Kong as John Lee set to deliver city’s first ever 5-year planThis live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu will unveil the city’s first five-year plan at the legislature on Wednesday morning, followed by his annual policy address. The highly anticipated plan, which comes after a two-month public consultation, aims to align the city’s priorities with the nation’s 2026-30 development blueprint. Lee said in an op-ed on Monday that the blueprint will include both binding...South China Morning Post
POLITICS12h agoHong Kong policy address to unveil bold youth housing and mediation initiativesHong Kong’s leader will unveil two bold initiatives on housing and mediation in his policy address, the South China Morning Post has learned, with the government planning to boost home ownership rates among young couples and prioritise settling official commercial disputes through the city’s mediation body. The new measures, to be unveiled by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Wednesday, aimed to strengthen the city’s status as a global mediation capital while improving livelihoods, government...South China Morning Post
POLITICS1d agoHong Kong leader vows accountability over faulty lifts at Queen Mary HospitalHong Kong authorities will hold construction firms and government personnel accountable for faulty lift installation work at Queen Mary Hospital’s new block, the city’s leader has said, as he tasked the Development Bureau with submitting a report within a month. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday that he had instructed the bureau, which had given him a preliminary briefing, to “thoroughly investigate the matter and report within a month”. “We will pursue accountability, including...South China Morning Post
POLITICS1d agoWhy Hong Kong’s economic future still hinges on national securityIn any conversation about Hong Kong’s future, one question often emerges: when will the city pivot away from national security and back to economic development? To most, Hong Kong is fundamentally a commercial hub. After the turmoil of 2019, most reasonable people agreed that restoring public order was imperative. Today, the orchestrators of that unrest and the radicals are largely imprisoned or have fled. While occasional flare-ups and various forms of “soft resistance” persist, society at...South China Morning Post
POLITICS1d agoHong Kong’s next policy address is just around the corner. Here’s what to expectHong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu’s coming policy address will introduce measures to remove hurdles for businesses setting up shop in the Northern Metropolis and include proactive initiatives to strengthen innovation hubs, research efforts and tech applications, the South China Morning Post has learned. Government sources said measures supporting the megaproject in the northern New Territories and backing innovation were expected to be major highlights of the chief executive’s policy address on...South China Morning Post
POLITICS1d agoHong Kong district councillor remanded in custody after underage sex convictionA Hong Kong court has remanded a district councillor in custody pending sentence after convicting him of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl 15 years ago, rejecting his claim that the allegation was politically motivated. Yuen Long District Council member Sei Chun-hing, 39, is set to become the first elected officer to face imprisonment for a criminal offence since a Beijing-led electoral overhaul in 2021, which ensured only those endorsed by authorities as “patriotic” can assume public...South China Morning Post
POLITICS1d agoFoundation collects tributes to Hong Kong’s Tung Chee-hwa for online memorialThe China-United States Exchange Foundation has launched a permanent tribute webpage to Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive, and collected more than 100 reflections from political and business heavyweights around the world. The foundation, established by Tung in 2008, said the webpage, which launched on Monday, included tributes from Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and Max Baucus, former United States ambassador to China. “This permanent tribute not only placemarks his remarkable...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoHong Kong urged to overhaul ecotourism planning and expand bookings for hotspotsHong Kong should overhaul its ecotourism planning and allow visitors to book ahead at more of its popular countryside attractions, a lawmaker has said, after a survey found most residents believed the city had strong potential for nature-focused experiences but lacked enough quality options. A poll of 651 residents commissioned by lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung’s office and think tank New Youth Forum found 71.8 per cent agreed Hong Kong’s countryside resources could be developed into high-quality...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoHong Kong to sweeten school merger deals, offer housing measures to lift birthsHong Kong authorities are expected to provide more incentives to encourage under-enrolled public schools to merge to survive, while announcing housing measures and tax reductions to tackle the falling birth rate in this week’s policy address, the South China Morning Post has learned. A government source told the South China Morning Post that the policy address by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Wednesday would offer additional incentives to encourage the merger of subsidised schools amid the...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoHong Kong 5-year plan to stick with capitalism, uphold ‘one country, two systems’: John LeeHong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan will not change the capitalist system and instead fully exploit its advantages to map the city’s long-term development, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said. In an opinion piece published in the South China Morning Post on Monday, the city leader also stressed that the blueprint, in focusing on the economy, would ultimately “enable citizens to flourish” by creating employment opportunities and upward mobility. Lee will unveil Hong Kong’s first-ever...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoHow the five-year plan can serve the nation and deliver for Hong KongThis year marks the opening year of the national 15th five-year plan. Faced with accelerating change globally and significant opportunities brought by national development, Hong Kong must better integrate into and serve the overall national development, enabling our economic progress to reach new heights while enhancing people’s livelihood and well-being. This February, I announced that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government would formulate the city’s first five-year plan. I led...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoBeijing’s ‘trust issue’ with Hong Kong and what the city can promise in its 5-year planIn the final instalment of our series of previews on the five-year plan and policy address, to be announced on September 16, Natalie Wong and Matthew Cheng look at how national security spans areas such as finance and technology and what Hong Kong must do to earn Beijing’s trust. Read part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here. With the recent sentencing of former leaders of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square vigil concluding a key high-profile subversion case, it would be easy...South China Morning Post
POLITICS2d agoChief Executive article: Written before the release of Hong Kong's First Five-Year PlanThis year marks the opening year of the National 15th Five-Year Plan. Faced with accelerating change globally and significant opportunities brought by national development, Hong Kong must better integrate into and serve the overall national development, enabling our economic progress to reach new heights while enhancing people's livelihood and well-being.thestandard_hk · hong kong
POLITICS2d agoWill Hong Kong’s educators learn from sliding Pisa results?The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results are out and unfortunately for the Education Bureau, Hong Kong’s performance looks bad. Is this the outcome of not learning from the last assessment? In the 2022 Pisa assessment, a metric for creative thinking was introduced to measure the ability to generate, evaluate, improve and communicate ideas, as well as social and scientific problem-solving. Hong Kong scored below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and...South China Morning Post