Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan has announced the establishment of a high-level cross-bureau task force that will spearhead the special administrative region’s integration with China’s national 15th Five-Year Plan. This marks the first time Hong Kong will develop its own comprehensive five-year strategic blueprint in synchronization with national development objectives.
During Wednesday’s budget address, Chan detailed how the national plan explicitly supports Hong Kong’s enhanced integration into China’s development framework while strengthening its global position as an international financial, shipping, and trade hub. The strategy additionally targets Hong Kong’s transformation into an international innovation and technology center alongside establishing itself as a global talent acquisition hub.
The financial secretary emphasized Hong Kong’s distinctive advantages in artificial intelligence, life sciences, financial technology, and renewable materials research. He outlined how the city’s robust financial ecosystem will drive ‘Finance+’ initiatives—leveraging financial services to bolster real economic sectors and foster synergistic growth between finance and technological innovation.
Chan highlighted Hong Kong’s unique institutional advantages under the ‘one country, two systems’ framework, positioning the territory as both a ‘super connector’ and ‘super value-adder’ in China’s high-level opening-up strategy. The city’s world-class aviation, shipping, and logistics infrastructure will facilitate international business expansion and foreign investment attraction.
The talent development strategy encompasses both attracting elite global researchers through Hong Kong’s internationally renowned universities and nurturing local expertise, aligning with national goals for integrated education-technology-talent development.