Budget 2026: Hong Kong to continue to attract global talent while nurturing locals

Hong Kong will step up efforts in attracting top global talents while nurturing local talents, said Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in his budget speech on Wednesday. 

Chan said that the government would continue to advance the current scheme. But gave no details on how they would increase recruitment. 

Critics of the government’s Top Talent Pass Scheme, a mechanism targeting high-income earners and top graduates, say the scheme takes jobs away from locals, while nearly half of external talents didn’t choose to extend their visas.

“The Top Talent Pass Scheme draws over 100,000 global elites, contributing to Hong Kong's economic development,” Chan said, adding that the government particularly seeks to attract leading scientific research experts.

The Top Talent Scheme was estimated to contribute about HK$34 billion to Hong Kong’s economy annually, equivalent to around 1.2% of the city’s GDP, according to the Labour and Welfare Bureau. 

Bibi Lam, 26, said that when she first arrived in Hong Kong through the Top Talent Pass Scheme after graduating from a university in Australia three years ago, she felt a great deal of pressure in finding affordable housing and a job.

“I need to pay HK$8,500 per month for a small flat of less than 20 square metres while everything is expensive. It felt suffocating,” said Lam.

“I think the biggest difficulty when I just arrived in Hong Kong was finding my first job,” Lam said, adding that many people she knows eventually had to leave Hong Kong after failing to secure employment. 

Her first job as an administrative assistant required frequent overtime and involved work unrelated to her marketing background.

“It felt like being boiled slowly in warm water,” she said. She finally found a satisfactory job in marketing in August last year after several job changes and said she will stay in the city.

The scheme’s application rate for extension of stay is about 52%, according to the government.

This is in line with expectations, according to a LegCo meeting this February.

“This is a process of mutual screening among talents. Although we choose talents, talents should also choose Hong Kong,” said Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han in the meeting.

Bess Lam, 23, a local year-four student at Hong Kong Baptist University majoring in information systems, said she is worried that the scheme will make it harder for her to find a job. 

“This scheme has attracted a large number of graduates from mainland and overseas, so maybe it will intensify the job market competition,” Lam said.

The government will provide around 3,600 short-term internship placements in government departments for post-secondary students, Chan said in the budget address, adding that nurturing local talent is a key initiative. 

The government should prioritise the cultivation of local talent, while attracting global talent serves as a supplementary measure, said Sun in LegCo in January.