In announcing his Policy Address the day before, Lee outlined 11 measures to boost fertility, including raising the maximum mortgage loan-to-value ratio from 90 percent to 95 percent for White Form family applicants with newborns.
At a Legco question-and-answer session on Thursday, lawmaker Scott Leung asked whether the initiative could be extended to all White Form applicants, saying many young people hesitate to marry and have children due to a lack of stable housing.
“We need to consider that if we expand a measure too broadly, whether our financial commitments and responsibilities will remain sustainable,” Lee said in response.
“The sustainability of a policy must be taken into account when allocating public resources, which is why some measures are intended to be one-off or short-term in nature.”
Education sector lawmaker Tang Fei asked how the government plans to attract top tech talent to the Northern Metropolis.
The chief executive noted that the Labour and Welfare Bureau will soon release its latest Manpower Projection, acknowledging that Hong Kong faces a shortage of AI specialists.
Lee stressed that the government will do everything possible to recruit professionals in the field.
“We have several advantages. First, our tertiary education is highly successful. For a small city, we boast five top-100 universities. Second is our internationalisation. Third, talent naturally leans towards opportunity, and our Five-Year Plan clearly outlines where Hong Kong’s future opportunities lie,” he said.
“Furthermore, all our policies are focusing on talent, technology, and industry development, as skilled professionals are drawn to research, academic, and industry ecosystems. Our push to build university towns is also important in attracting global talent.”
On the city’s first Five-Year Plan, DAB lawmaker Gary Chan asked Lee whether the public could expect to see clear improvements in the economy after five years, and whether their overall well-being would receive a major boost.
Lee said it was up to the Chief Executive to make sure the plan was implemented.
“Implementing a Five-Year Plan means it needs to span across five Policy Addresses. But how do we ensure proper execution throughout those five years? The Chief Executive needs to report to national leaders each year, and the Five-Year Plan explicitly states that during these briefings, the Chief Executive must explain the progress of its implementation,” he said.
“The Chief Executive is the person in charge, the ‘head of the household’, and it is his responsibility to implement the Five-Year Plan.”
The next Five-Year Plan, Lee added, will set grander objectives.
