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Hong Kong’s chief John Lee has delivered an inaugural coverage deal with that emphasised the upkeep of nationwide safety and social order after a interval of “chaos”, and unveiled massive plans to draw new enterprises and world-class expertise to the town.
After prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns and political upheavals in Hong Kong, Lee’s speech on Wednesday was centered on reviving the town’s credentials as a world enterprise hub and pitching the metropolis as a pretty location for graduates of the world’s prime universities to dwell and work.
Lee, a Beijing-anointed former profession policeman, started his deal with with a give attention to safety, although he didn’t straight reference the years of pro-democracy protests that noticed tons of of 1000’s of Hong Kong residents take to the streets to claim their autonomy from Beijing, resulting in clashes with police, and 1000’s of arrests.
The protest subsided with the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and Beijing’s passing of a nationwide safety regulation for Hong Kong that has seen greater than 100 individuals, together with various outstanding activists, arrested, and plenty of others fleeing the town.
Lee spoke of the benefits that Hong Kong supplied underneath the “one nation, two techniques” the place the town was a bridge linking mainland China with the remainder of the world.
Hong Kong had returned to “order”, Lee stated, and was beginning “a brand new chapter” the place it could shine as soon as once more because the “Pearl of the Orient”.
Upkeep of safety and sovereignty was key to making sure stability and prosperity within the metropolis, stated Lee, who as a former Hong Kong safety chief oversaw the crackdown on the pro-democracy protests and is amongst a listing of officers sanctioned by america.
“The event of Hong Kong permits no delay. Social stability is the prerequisite for our growth, and we’ve to do away with any interference,” Lee stated.
He additionally spoke of the necessity to “guard vigilantly in opposition to threats”, strengthening of the rule of regulation, the administration of justice, and the general public’s understanding of the regulation.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Hong Kong, stated Lee’s speech of greater than two and a half hours was his first coverage deal with, and nationwide safety was chief amongst points within the early a part of the presentation.
“How Hong Kong has gone from a state of affairs of chaos now to considered one of governance and the way the town have to be vigilant to take care of the soundness that they’ve labored exhausting to realize … Now, he says, the problem is to advance from that place of stability to considered one of prosperity,” Washington stated of Lee’s speech.
“These are traces we’ve heard from China’s President Xi Jinping prior to now, together with at his deal with to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Congress and when he visited Hong Kong as properly,” she stated.
Expertise trawl
Civil servants have been additionally placed on discover by Lee that enhancements in governance have been a precedence and their want for “consciousness of safeguarding nationwide sovereignty, safety and growth pursuits”. Civil service disciplinary measures would even be streamlined, in accordance with Lee.
However, the first focus of his speech was on promoting Hong Kong as a centre for enterprise and expertise.
Hong Kong, which solely scrapped necessary quarantine for worldwide arrivals final month, is about to finish the yr in a full-blown recession and has seen its fiscal deficit soar.
The border with the Chinese language mainland stays all however closed due to Beijing’s strict “zero-COVID” guidelines.
Lee supplied a blueprint to reverse the downturn and reboot the town as a pretty worldwide hub.
“Over the previous two years, the native workforce shrank by about 140,000,” he stated.
“Aside from actively nurturing and retaining native expertise, the federal government will proactively trawl the world for expertise.”
Among the many measures rolled out have been HK$30bn ($3.8bn) for a brand new funding fund to draw abroad companies and make it simpler to rent foreigners in 13 key professions.
Town may even give preferential therapy to “prime expertise”, described as individuals who earn HK$2.5m ($320,000) or extra yearly and graduates from the highest 100 universities all over the world who’ve related working expertise.
Abroad expertise who paid additional taxes when shopping for property in Hong Kong can obtain a refund once they grow to be a everlasting resident, a standing accessible after residing within the metropolis for seven years, Lee added.
Consultants and enterprise teams had lengthy warned that heavy-handed coronavirus insurance policies have been driving away international enterprise and making it more durable to draw and retain expertise.
Hong Kong’s tempo of reopening nonetheless lags behind regional rivals like Singapore, which has gone on a allure offensive to lure worldwide expertise and has bounced again as a world transport hub.
Except for the pandemic, many residents – particularly locals – have cited the persevering with political crackdown as a major motive for leaving, with many workplaces and faculties reshaped by pro-Beijing ideology.
Beijing’s imposition of the sweeping nationwide safety regulation on Hong Kong since 2020 has largely silenced the town as a centre totally free speech and eradicated most dissent.
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