How the five-year plan can serve the nation and deliver for Hong Kong

The city’s new development road map mirrors national priorities, leveraging deeper integration to drive national progress while securing local livelihoods

The five-year plan, with all its demanding tasks, was devised under an exceptionally tight schedule. It often takes mainland cities one to two years of preliminary research and discussion to construct their five-year plans. We had less than a year to complete Hong Kong’s first five-year plan from scratch. I am grateful to all policy bureaus and departments, and the individuals involved, for their outstanding efforts under pressure – a breakthrough in the Hong Kong government’s public governance capabilities.

My team and I began by reviewing the five-year plan experiences of Macau and mainland cities. Officials from the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau visited mainland cities to learn from their experience.

Working together, the executive and the legislature allowed the government to race against time while ensuring that the plan was representative and its scientific foundations remained solid.