FINALLY, there is light at the end of the tunnel for Hong Kong residents whose livelihoods have been hit by the battering the special administrative region’s economy has taken from the months of anti-government disturbances and the COVID-19 pandemic. The new policy blueprint HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor unveiled on Wednesday will go a long way toward resolving the social problems that have plagued the SAR and getting its economy back on its feet. Delivering her delayed annual policy address, Lam said that Hong Kong had experienced multiple blows from the social unrest, shrinking economy, pandemic and acts that “endangered national security”, creating a situation that was “unprecedented”. Priority has rightly been given to the task of restoring Hong Kong’s constitutional order and the proper functioning of the political system in the chief executive’s fourth policy address. Implementing the measures the chief executive outlined will free Hong Kong from the dysfunctional political wrangling it has endured over recent years, allowing it to refocus on development.
Hong Kong residents can also take heart from the numerous measures proposed in the new policy address that are aimed at improving people’s well-being. These include efforts to enhance residents’ livelihoods by strengthening and diversifying economic development. The chief executive successfully secured the central government’s support for policies in seven areas such as finance, aviation, technology and health. Both short- and longer-term measures have also been announced to ease the city’s severe housing shortage which is the root cause of much of the deep-seated anger at the government. Most notably, the chief executive unambiguously reaffirmed the ambitious reclamation plan will go ahead to meaningfully increase land and housing supply in the city. The chief executive ended her policy address with a note of optimism, assuring Hong Kong people they would be seeing “a rainbow after the storm”. She has reasons to be optimistic. With the implementation of Hong Kong’s new national security law, social order in the city has been effectively restored, hostile forces have mostly receded and radicals have been kept at bay. And with the central authorities giving their full support to the measures in the new policy blueprint she has just unveiled and promoting the greater integration of Hong Kong into the overall development of the country, the city can have confidence there is a bright future ahead. This year will be viewed as a major milestone for the special administrative region for the right reasons.
China Daily
