One Plan, Two Systems: What Will Make Hong Kong's First Five-Year Blueprint Tick?
Hong Kong is drafting its first-ever Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) to align with China's national blueprint. It is a massive cultural shift for the city—a historic attempt to merge top-down, state-driven planning with Hong Kong's traditional bottom-up, laissez-faire approach.
But how does a city built on market dynamics draw up and execute a master plan? Joined by veterans on Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland’s public administration and politics, we are tackling the hard questions behind the blueprint: How can Hong Kong carve out its own development trajectory within a national framework? If this transition demands a fundamental shift in both policymaking and governance—redefining not just what the government aims to achieve, but how it operates—is the civil service and political machinery actually equipped to deliver? Join us to explore the real mechanics of execution and what this evolving center–local dynamic means for the future of "One Country, Two Systems."
Moderated by Vincent Cheng and Chenyu Wu, Young China Watchers HK
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Speakers Biography:
Professor Anthony B. L. Cheung (張炳良), GBS, BBS, JP is the former Secretary for Transport and Housing of the Hong Kong SAR Government (2012-17) and former President of the Education University of Hong Kong (2008-2012, then known as Hong Kong Institute of Education). He co-founded the Asian Association of Public Administration in 2010 and served as its President in 2012.
During his ministerial term, he oversaw the completion of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Rail-link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the launch of the Airport Third-Runway System project, as well as the promulgation of the 2014 Long-Term Housing Strategy and 2014 Railway Development Strategy.
Among his many public service roles, Professor Cheung was a Member of the Legislative Council (1995-97), Non-Official Member of the Executive Council (2005-2012), and Chairman of the Hong Kong Consumer Council (2007-2012). After stepping down from ministerial office in 2017, he chaired a government task force to review self-financing post-secondary education, as well as serving as Chairman of the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education and Member of both the Education Commission and University Grants Committee until 2023.
Professor Cheung’s research focuses on governance, public administration, administrative reform, and public policy. He has published 17 authored/edited books and some 120 refereed journal articles and book chapters. His recent books in English are: Can Hong Kong Exceptionalism Last? Dilemmas of Governance and Public Administration over Five Decades, 1970s-2020 (sole-authored, City University of Hong Kong Press, 2021, 450 pp) and Crisis Leadership and Public Governance during the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Comparisons (co-edited with Sandra van Thiel, World Scientific Publishing, 2023, 420pp).
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Professor Christine Loh is Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She was Under Secretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government (2012-17), Special Consultant to the Chief Executive on the mainland’s ecological civilization policy (2019-20), and a legislator (1992-97 and 1998-20). Loh has been active in public policy since the 1980s. She founded and was the CEO of a non-profit think tank and is a published author of many academic and popular works – her latest book published in 2023 by HKU Press is about Covid-19. She serves as director on several local and internationals boards and committees, including the UN International Organization on Migration, and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.