Politics

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu delivered his maiden policy address yesterday after his swearing-in. His speech this year clocked two hours and 45 minutes, seven minutes longer than the previous chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s longest policy address last year. Using President Xi Jinping's speech on June 1 as a blueprint for the administration of the current government, Lee announced a series of policies to leverage Hong Kong’s unique advantage of “enjoying strong support of the motherland while being closely connected to the world under the ‘One Country, Two Systems.’” Here are key takeaways from his first policy address speech: Wooing talents More than 140,000 workers left the city in the past two years. To attract and retain talents, Lee said the territory will be aggressive in “competing for enterprises” and “competing for talents”. Lee said the Top Talent Pass Scheme will be launched for two years. Eligible applicants, including those who earned at least HK$2.5 million in the past year or graduated from one of the top 100 universities in the world, will be issued a two-year work visa.  Quotas on the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, in which “highly skilled or talented persons” are able to apply for work visas, will be lifted for two years. Stamp duty for property purchased by non-permanent residents, which is 30% of the property price, will be refunded when they become Hong Kong permanent residents.   Increasing housing supply  Lee said solving the housing shortage is his top priority.  Currently, applicants need to wait about six years to live in public housing. Lee said the government will “cap the waiting time immediately” by introducing new “light public housing” and increasing the supply of traditional public units. The government will build at least 30,000 simple light public housing for transitional homes …

The Hong Kong government will invest $10 billion to foster technological innovations in universities and formulate a plan to attract foreign high-tech companies to set up offices and R&D centres in Hong Kong to build it into a global high-tech hub. Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu said that the government will launch the "Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint" to formulate key policies on four development directions. “I&T (Innovation and Technology) provides key impetus for Hong Kong’s high-quality economic development,” said Lee. Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint I&T ecosystem  Talent Pool Smart city International Development  1. Promote commercialisation of research and development outcomes  2. Promote the development of technology industry 3. Press ahead with re-industrialisation 4. Strengthening infrastructure 1. Introduce leading international innovation and technology talents by collaborating 2. Optimising the   existing technology talent plan 3. Increase accommodation support 1. Expand 5G Networks 2. Share database to company in I&T sector 1. Strengthen the cooperation with Shenzhen 2. Attracting enterprises  Under the proposal, the government will set up a $10 billion “Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme” next year to support the development of the technology industry in local universities. Matching funds will be provided to at least 100 research teams in universities, aiming to help them transform their ideas into products. "Although many scientific research teams in colleges and universities can obtain seed funds to start enterprises, they often fail to have further development or even commercialisation because angel investors and venture capital investors are more cautious, " said Shum Yu-yiu, an awardee of HK Tech 300 HK Tech 300 is a program launched by the City University of Hong Kong to help its students who are aspiring entrepreneurs. According to Startmeup HK, a government agency set up to promote startup companies in Hong Kong, …