Hong Kong Chief Executive Li Jiachao: Welcome everyone to board the "Express" in Hong Kong. Hong Kong | Special Administrative Region Government | Li Jiachao

Today is the 26th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and it is also the sixth government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that has served for one year.

On June 30th, Li Jiachao, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, stated in an interview with Southern Plus and GDToday at the Chief Executive's office in Admiralty that the SAR government has achieved significant results in "grabbing talent" and "grabbing enterprises" and enhancing development momentum in the past year. "Hong Kong is now more united and cohesive than ever before, welcoming foreign talents and enterprises to board this' Express' and achieve success."

Looking back on the year of fulfilling his duties, Li Jiachao believes that it is of great significance to not only recover the time consumed due to the "black storm" and the epidemic, but also strive to improve people's livelihoods and build a better home for the citizens in Hong Kong. He also needs to be vigilant against potential saboteurs that endanger national security. "The advantages of innovation, finance, transportation, and culture together constitute Hong Kong's' genes'. What we need to do is to add 'vitamins' to Hong Kong every day, making it stronger." Li Jiachao said, "I am full of confidence in Hong Kong's future."

Improve governance level

"As long as it can enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness, the SAR government will provide support."

On July 1, 2022, President Xi Jinping attended the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the inauguration ceremony of the sixth government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and put forward 4 ardent hopes for Hong Kong to create a new situation and achieve a new leap: "Strive to improve the level of governance" "Continuously enhance development momentum", "effectively resolve people's livelihood worries" and "jointly maintain harmony and stability".

"In the past, the SAR government may have placed more emphasis on management, but now the competition is very fierce. The government not only needs to do a good job in management to ensure fair competition, but also needs to support some businesses that are beneficial to Hong Kong in the long run, so as to enhance our competitiveness." Li Jiachao said that the SAR government takes the initiative to connect with enterprises, and as long as it can enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness and help its development, the SAR government will provide support.

"If you don't tell us what you're doing, others won't know, and we have this responsibility," Li Jiachao said. Since the second half of last year, Hong Kong SAR government officials and business people have visited abroad frequently, exploring markets and opportunities for Hong Kong. In order to be more proactive in "grabbing enterprises", the Special Administrative Region Government has also established an "Office for Introducing Key Enterprises" to lead the development of investment strategy industries, especially in innovative technology.

"There are many advantages in Hong Kong that others may not necessarily know. Through activities such as visits, we need to make more people understand that Hong Kong is a place worth developing and investing in, which is closely related to their investment and commercial activities." Li Jiachao said, for example, the "14th Five Year Plan" established the positioning of Hong Kong as one of the "eight major centers", including an international financial center, an international innovation center, and a center for cultural and artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries. This should all be well publicized.

"We need to make the outside world understand how the cultural and industrial policies of the SAR government have changed, and how they can achieve better development in Hong Kong. We also need to make them understand how Hong Kong can provide opportunities for foreign enterprises, funds, etc. to enter the Greater Bay Area and even the entire mainland market. In addition, Li Jiachao pointed out that Hong Kong now has a special advantage: the whole Hong Kong society is more united and cohesive than before.".

Li Jiachao said that for any enterprise or talent coming to Hong Kong, "taking this ship, the power of the ship is much faster than before." Foreign enterprises and talents are welcome to board the "Express" in Hong Kong and achieve success.

Enhance development momentum

Hong Kong is a place where you can have dreams, pursue them, and fulfill them

"Enhancing development momentum is crucial for enhancing Hong Kong's overall competitiveness and promoting economic development. Therefore, in my first policy address, I listed a series of measures aimed at promoting Hong Kong's development momentum in the short, medium, and long term." Li Jiachao believes that there are many factors that affect a place's development momentum, and for Hong Kong, the most important ones currently are talent and enterprises.

"Nowadays, every place is competing for talent because talent is the most important element of development. If we don't compete, we will fall behind." Li Jiachao admitted that data shows that Hong Kong's population has indeed decreased in the past few years. In order to quickly make up for the loss of talent, he also proposed in his policy address to "compete for talent" and "compete for enterprises".

Over the past year, the SAR government has launched a series of "talent grabbing" plans such as "Gaocai Tong", aiming to attract 35000 talents from around the world with rich work experience or graduates from top 100 universities each year. Since its implementation for 5 months, the results have been significant. Currently, about 50000 people have been granted visas through application, exceeding the annual plan.

Recently, the US research firm Startup Genome released the latest "2023 Global Startup Ecosystem Report". Hong Kong ranks second globally and first in Asia in the category of emerging startup ecosystems it belongs to, and has achieved excellent ratings in funding, performance, market exposure, connectivity, talent, and experience.

"People say that Hong Kong is a city that never stops 24 hours a day. It is a place where you can have dreams, pursue them, and fulfill your dreams." Li Jiachao pointed out that the advantages of innovation, finance, transportation, culture, and other aspects together form Hong Kong's "genes". "What we need to do is to add 'vitamins' to Hong Kong every day to make her stronger.".

Resolving Difficulties in Livelihood Concerns

Excessive absorption of impoverished children to "co create a bright Teen"

Looking back at the work of the past year, Li Jiachao stated that improving people's livelihoods is a key task of the SAR government. He hopes to make the citizens feel that Hong Kong is a beautiful home that can bring them happiness and happiness, and that they can also receive government assistance when facing difficulties.

It is understood that before the first policy address was issued, Li Jiachao visited citizens in different regions of Hong Kong, and the living environment of grassroots homeowners left a deep impression on him, which also made him worried about the future development of children living in poverty. "We have developed the 'Co Creating Bright Teen' plan, hoping to help junior high school students from disadvantaged communities develop life plans, build confidence, enhance abilities, and establish correct values by pairing them with volunteer teachers. Li Jiachao revealed that the original plan was to recruit 2000 students, but ultimately recruited 2800 students.".

Li Jiachao said that the supply of land and housing remains the main challenge. In order to alleviate the life pressure faced by grassroots families due to long-term waiting for public housing, he proposed the concept of "minimalist public housing" in his policy address. "Although the plan is to build over 300000 public housing units within 10 years to meet the needs of citizens, we do not want citizens to wait too long." He said that the SAR government has built 30000 "minimalist public housing" to enable citizens living in public housing to improve their living environment as soon as possible and "go upstairs" in advance.

In response to the housing needs of young people, Li Jiachao plans to launch the popular "Hong Kong First Home Ownership Plan" once again, while expanding the supply of "Youth Dormitory Plan" and increasing the supply of youth dormitories through various means, including funding non-governmental organizations to rent suitable hotels and inns, and converting rooms into youth dormitories.

"Hong Kong is thriving with youth, and youth is our future," said Li Jiachao. The "Youth Development Blueprint" issued by the SAR government in December last year covers more than 160 specific actions and measures, helping youth development in different aspects. "At the same time, many youth internship programs have been developed to provide Hong Kong young people with internship opportunities in mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area."

Maintaining harmony and stability

Complete the legislation of 23 articles of the Basic Law within this year or at the latest next year

"The Hong Kong National Security Law targets a very small number of destructive elements who seriously endanger national security, while protecting the vast majority of Hong Kong law-abiding residents." Li Jiachao said that although the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law has achieved significant results in the past three years, this does not mean that the risks to national security in society have disappeared. He noticed that there are still some disruptive elements lurking in different areas of society, occasionally using "soft confrontation" methods to interfere with government governance.

"For example, there have been some people hoping to prevent Hong Kong and the mainland from establishing organ mutual assistance mechanisms recently. This great plan is to save lives, and it is a very rare opportunity for every patient and their family in need. Why do some people want to sabotage and widen the 'distance' between the two places?" Li Jiachao said, "We must not forget the series of things that happened in Hong Kong in 2019 that endangered national security, and we must remain vigilant and prepared for danger.".

"The Hong Kong SAR government has the responsibility to lead society to further implement and maintain national security, as well as to make citizens aware that related risks still exist." Li Jiachao believes that in the face of the increasingly complex international situation and targeted attacks and smears by some countries and regions, the SAR government is striving to complete the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law within this year or at the latest next year. "The 23 pieces of legislation are not a compromise. If we only consider completing tasks as soon as possible and ignore certain potential risks, we will not fulfill our constitutional responsibilities and not fulfill our obligations to Hong Kong and the country."

Accelerate integration into the Greater Bay Area

Plan to establish Xintian Science and Technology City in the Hetao area

"Hong Kong has always had its own shortcomings, and the integration of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area requires the formation of complementary advantages. All 11 cities are leveraging their strengths, sharing their strengths, and making good use of them all." Li Jiachao said that as early as the end of last year, the SAR government established the "Integration into the National Development Plan Supervision Group" to strengthen high-level cooperation between cities in the Greater Bay Area. 13 specialized cooperation classes have been established between Guangdong and Hong Kong, covering key areas of cooperation such as epidemic prevention and customs clearance, northern metropolitan area, Nansha scheme, innovation and technology, finance, commerce and trade, youth employment and entrepreneurship internships, promotion of legal and dispute resolution, shipping and logistics.

Li Jiachao stated that in the past year, the cooperation between Hong Kong and various cities in Guangdong has become closer. At present, Hong Kong is planning to establish the Xintian Science and Technology City in the Hetao area, which will not only closely connect with Shenzhen Futian and Huanggang, but also form a Shenzhen Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone with the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Park across the river, covering an area of about 540 hectares, to jointly create an important engine for the construction of the Greater Bay Area International Science and Technology Innovation Center.

At the same time, Li Jiachao looks forward to exploring more innovative models similar to the "one location, two inspections" at the West Kowloon High Speed Rail Station in the future, making the "interconnection" of pedestrian flow, logistics, capital flow, and information flow in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area more convenient.

Source | South Client