Latest Articles
Larger HOS Flats Are an Important Step — Young People Need Homes Where They Can Afford to Raise a Family
Abstract: Hong Kong’s homeownership rate among younger households has fallen substantially, while smaller newly built subsidised flats and rising housing costs have weakened the appeal of moving up the housing ladder. This article argues that the Government’s move to provide more larger subsidised sale flats and lower down-payment requirements for some young families is an important step, but lasting reform must also address living space, affordability and housing mobility so that homeownership can provide a home in which young families can build their lives. The difficulty young people in Hong Kong face in buying a home has been discussed for…
From Colonial Governance to Aligning with National Planning: Hong Kong Must Build a Policy Research Ecosystem
Hong Kong's 156 years of British rule left it with no tradition of long-term planning, and the post-handover efforts to build policy research capacity remain inadequate for aligning with national five-year planning. The authors argue that the SAR must now treat local policy research as core infrastructure — backed by redesigned public funding, opened commissioning pipelines, and a sustained talent pipeline.
Planning Is Not Consultation: The Real Test of Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan
Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan will be judged not by the document produced but by the planning capacity built along the way. The real challenge is that genuine planning requires sustained, professional policy research — the very thing Hong Kong has yet to develop.
Hong Kong's Five-Year Plan: Lessons from Singapore and South Korea's Capitalist Market Planning Models?
Drawing on the planning experience of South Korea and Singapore, this article argues that Hong Kong's version of the five-year plan should focus on long-term structural issues and a practical strategic blueprint, rather than rigid GDP targets and an all-encompassing wish list.
Hong Kong's Five-Year Plan Maiden Voyage: Building a More Mature and Open Space for Public Policy Discussion
Chief Executive John Lee has announced that Hong Kong will draw up its own Five-Year Plan for the first time, in a deliberate governance shift from year-by-year policy to medium-term planning. The authors argue that the plan's real significance is whether Hong Kong can, through this process, build a more mature approach to governance — grounded in data and empirical research, integrated through a systems-engineering perspective, and underpinned by a revitalised think-tank ecosystem capable of supporting a more mature and open public policy discussion space.
