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Big bang or damp squib? Why Hong Kong leader’s 2020 policy address may not really be the confidence booster a weary city needs
- Chief executive rolled out extensive details for her blueprint, spanning gamut of ideas from Greater Bay Area to dental work for elderly
- But analysts say unlike her previous announcements, this year’s speech left many questions unanswered and lacked eye-catching initiatives
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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had pinned high hopes on her latest policy address, assuring residents of the central government’s unwavering support to jump-start the city’s sputtering economy as she listed out initiative after initiative over more than two hours on Wednesday.
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Her mission, as she pledged earlier, had been to restore confidence in the people amid the doom and gloom of the coronavirus pandemic. She titled her speech “Striving ahead with renewed perseverance”.
But while the annual policy blueprint – which spanned the gamut of ideas from the Greater Bay Area to dental work for the elderly and from politics to car parks – was comprehensive, it barely qualified as a confidence booster, analysts said.
And despite its length, the speech still left several questions unaddressed, they said, such as how to mend the rifts in a community still polarised since anti-government protests erupted in June last year.
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Over two hours and 15 minutes, Lam delivered on Wednesday her lengthiest policy speech since taking office in 2017 and after one of the most tumultuous times for the city as it was battered first by the protests sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill and then the pandemic.
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