Alice Wu

Opinion | Hong Kong’s tourism, culture sectors deserve support, not just criticism

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau is playing catch-up after years on the back burner and needs support to play its part in Lee’s plans

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Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung, right, attends a ceremony at Tamar Park on September 22. Yeung and his bureau have come in for a rare bout of public criticism in the annual policy address. Photo: Edmond So

Alice Wu

Published: 9:30am, 21 Oct 2024

The “results-oriented” government Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has vowed to run seems to be having a few hiccups. Six key performance indicators (KPIs) could not be ticked off the list in time for Lee’s third policy address last week. While the six tasks span various departments and Lee explained that the delays were due to “reasonable causes”, the spotlight has been on the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau.

Lee singled out the bureau in the third item of the policy address annex over the delay in releasing a blueprint for growing the arts and creative industries sector for the city. In a rare move, he put Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung on notice. Lee wrote in the annex that he had “instructed” Yeung to complete the task as soon as possible and said he would “monitor the progress of this task”. This has to be the most striking feature of this year’s policy address.

To be fair, delays are a fact of life. Things rarely go as planned, especially when it comes to public administration and the inherent complexity that comes with the involvement of several other parties, including other bureaus and departments.

Two of the six KPIs yet to be completed – those regarding the environmental impact assessment for the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands project and introducing a bill to regulate the handling of recyclables in residential buildings – involve the Environmental and Ecology Bureau.

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau is not the only one which has failed to “fulfil public aspirations by delivering results as targeted”. However, even with its highly publicised failure in handling the waste charging scheme, the Environmental and Ecology Bureau was not called out by name.

This is not the first time Yeung has come in for criticism in public, either. Lawmaker Starry Lee Wai-king, who is also a National People’s Congress Standing Committee member, dressed down Yeung over the fiasco surrounding the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal during a November 2023 panel meeting on economic development.

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