Hong Kong to unveil Policy Address alongside debut 5-year plan on Sep 16

Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee has announced that the city will unveil its inaugural five-year plan and annual Policy Address together on September 16. Speaking to the press after a community visit on Wednesday, Lee explained that presenting the documents concurrently would help the public better grasp their interconnectedness.

He likened the five-year plan to outlining the eyes of a dragon, while each annual Policy Address draws the dragon itself. The five-year plan, Lee emphasized, sets the direction and strategy for Hong Kong's development, whereas the Policy Address translates that blueprint into concrete policy measures. During his last two Policy Addresses, Lee spoke for approximately three hours, with the 2023 address being the longest at nearly three and a half hours.

To maintain consistency with past years, Lee indicated that he will only gloss over the key points of both road maps in his September 16 presentation. In recent years, a dated term has been used to refer to the five-year roadmap, suggesting limited public understanding of the document. Lee clarified that the five-year plan is a programme, reflecting a shift in official terminology since 2006 when Beijing renamed the Soviet-inspired initiative from the Five-Year Plan to the Five-Year Programme to reflect Hong Kong's transition towards market reforms and away from a command economy. The English name of the document, however, remains unchanged.