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Hong Kong economy
CommentHong Kong
Mike Rowse
Mike Rowse

Opinion | Hong Kong budget: the best remedy for the city’s ailing economy is talent

  • The government’s strategy aims at expanding Hong Kong’s role as a finance, technology and trade hub to drive high-quality growth
  • For this we will need skilled workers from diverse backgrounds – will they come?

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People walk inside Central MTR station on January 26. Hong Kong’s population has fallen for three consecutive years and is now 7.3 million. Photo: Elson Li
Mike Rowse
The most important sentence in Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s budget speech this year appears in paragraph 134: “Talents are the most important resources for growth.” Clearly this was a reminder rather than fresh insight, the same point having been made by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his policy address last autumn.
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The annual budget speech is one of the two occasions each year when the government sets out its thinking on economic and social development. It has two main tasks: to flesh out with more detail the various initiatives previously outlined by the chief executive, and to explain how it’s all going to be paid for.

The economic backdrop has been grim. Gross domestic product fell by 3.5 per cent last year and exports of goods fell 13.9 per cent. Our economy is in recession. The top priority must be to return to a growth track with the emphasis on quality.

The budget set out the government’s plans to establish or strengthen our role as an international and regional centre in many areas: green technology and green finance; innovation and technology; financial, aviation and maritime services; trade; law and dispute resolution; cultural exchange; intellectual property trading. At the heart of all these ambitions is a skilled workforce.

The budget also had to take on board the recent report by the Census and Statistics Department. For three consecutive years our population has fallen and is now 7.3 million.
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There is no magic number that would enable Hong Kong to fulfil its economic targets. A population that fell to 6 million would not mean we were sure to fail, and one that rose to 60 million would not guarantee success. What matters is the level of professional skills.

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