MOTION ON “ESTABLISHING A TOP-LEVEL DEDICATED STRUCTURE TO DEVISE A POPULATION POLICY”
President, I speak in support of Ir Dr LO Wai-kwok’s motion. Population policy is not only about the present, but also has a substantial impact on Hong Kong’s future development and long-term competitiveness. Hong Kong’s population was 7.53 million as at the end of 2024 and is expected to reach 8.19 million by 2046. However, New York and London, which are leading international financial centres, have populations of 8.2 million and 9 million respectively. The labour force of these two cities accounts for more than 65% of their total populations, which is 8% higher than the 57% in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the proportion of young people in the population has reached 30%, the overall higher education participation rate exceeds 40%, and the number of international financial talents and fintech professionals is significantly higher than in Hong Kong. This indicates that Hong Kong is lagging behind.
In a previous interview, the Chief Executive also emphasized that Hong Kong needed to increase its population to 10 million in order to maintain its competitive edge, with which I strongly agree. However, the SAR Government has yet to announce a clear policy or measures to increase the population. If we mainly rely on organic growth, it will be difficult for us to keep up with the development of other international metropolitan areas, which will affect Hong Kong’s long-term conditions as an international financial centre.
Top-level planning is crucial for implementing population policies, but the former Steering Committee on Population Policy was dissolved in 2017. Although the Government established the Human Resources Planning Commission in 2018, its terms of reference were mainly to fully unleash the potential of the local workforce and provide employment support, without making any significant breakthroughs in the context of the overall population policy. I suggest the Government should expeditiously review the functions of the Commission and turn it into a “long-term population policy steering committee” to coordinate the existing resources of various Policy Bureaux and comprehensively plan a forward-looking population policy.
We should learn from other international financial cities, which generally adopt a population strategy of “supporting childbirth, nurturing talents and attracting international talents”. In terms of increasing the birth rate, the experience of other regions shows that a more inclusive, family-friendly workplace environment must be maintained to create favourable conditions for increasing the birth rate. I suggest that the Government should encourage enterprises to implement family-friendly measures such as flexible work arrangements and childcare subsidies, as well as improve parental education and childcare services, to alleviate the care pressure on working parents, especially mothers. Nowadays, young mothers generally have higher education level, and the Government should provide them with more friendly policies so that they can continue to work with peace of mind while the overall labour force participation rate increases.
In addition, the Government should integrate the resources of higher education, vocational education and on-the-job training to nurture local talents. I suggest that the Government should actively promote cooperation between tertiary institutions and enterprises in offering industry-academia collaborative programmes; improve the vocational education system; establish a mechanism for the articulation of “academic qualifications, skills and employment” in key industries such as innovation and technology and financial services; and establish a platform for online and offline vocational training led by the Government and in cooperation with higher education institutions, professional associations and enterprises. The Government should update course contents in a timely manner according to industry changes, formulate continuing education requirements linked to industry qualification certification, and assist working people in continuously improving their overall capabilities, thereby further increasing the higher education participation rate in Hong Kong.
In recent years, the Government has launched a series of measures to attract talents, which are gradually showing results. Over 270 000 applications have been approved under various talent admission schemes, which exceeded the target. However, various sectors of the community still have doubts about whether some of the approved talents will really stay in Hong Kong for development. This reflects that the Government’s talent policy still remains at the stage of “input thinking”, focusing on the introduction of policies and investment of resources but neglecting key performance indicators (“KPIs”) such as the actual talent gap filling rate in the financial industries, etc. and the stability of talent retention in Hong Kong. I suggest that the Government should regularly review the effectiveness of its talent attraction measures and change the policy KPIs from “approval quantity” to “retention rate”, “industry contribution”, etc. The Government should also regularly conduct talent demand surveys and collect talent feedback from enterprises, dynamically adjusting the Talent List and supporting measures so that Hong Kong maintains a leading position in the global talent competition.
President, a population policy is the cornerstone of urban development. In the face of regional competition, Hong Kong should develop a forward-looking population policy framework and elevate population development issues to the strategic level of urban development, building up strength for the development of Hong Kong into a globally competitive international financial centre and metropolitan city.
President, I support the original motion and the two amendments. I so submit.