Opinion | How Hong Kong’s chief executive hopeful John Lee can live up to his ‘result-oriented’ promise
- The Northern Metropolis should not only be a showcase of addressing housing needs and deploying innovation and technology, it can also developed sustainably
- Lee’s team must weave social advancement into infrastructure development so that urban design prioritises human well-being
It goes without saying that we all want governments to be “result oriented”. Lofty rhetoric and big promises without delivery are not worth much. Chief executive candidate John Lee Ka-chiu’s emphasis on delivery is what he and his administration will be judged by.
Lee wants to deliver on important things successive administrations have failed to do. If he can do so in the next five years, he will refute criticism that he is just putting “old wine in a new bottle”.
Lee has emphasised housing in his policy platform, and listed developing Hong Kong as an innovation and technology centre as a core policy. Few would disagree that these are priorities for Hong Kong. The test is whether he can get them done.
The former director of planning, Ling Kar-kan, who put together the Northern Metropolis concept plan last year, noted that various parts of it had been in the works for some years. To realise the plan, wise use of government land and proactive resumption of privately held land will be necessary. This will be Lee’s first challenge.
