Northern Metropolis

John Lee set out a strategy to try and reinforce the city's position as Asia's leading financial centre.

And he also talked a lot about the northern metropolis and also making Hong Kong more innovative, spending more of GDP on innovation in his five-year plan.

Didn't set a GDP target, unlike mainland cities do in their plans.

Francis, let me ask you, first of all, do we need a five-year plan?

So we are a little bit behind the curve and now we should try to work with China to help to further boost up Hong Kong economy.

Well, here's an example.

The Northern Metropolis project, the government wants us to go and live there and work there on the border with Shenzhen.

It says it hopes that it's going to house about a third of Hong Kong's population and businesses are going to create 650,000 jobs.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has unveiled its first-ever five-year plan for economic and social development, setting out the city's priorities for 2026 to 2030.

What does the plan tell us about Hong Kong's next stage of development? How will the Northern Metropolis, a core project enabling Hong Kong's participation in the Greater Bay Area, drive the city's economic growth? And most importantly, what will the plan mean for the everyday lives of Hong Kong residents? Join today's dialogue with Wang Shinsong, Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University.

Professor Whitman Hung, Director of the Greater Bay Area Research Center of the China Silk Road-Eye Valley Research Institute, and Lawrence Ma, Member of the Election Committee of the Hong Kong SAR and Executive Council Chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation.

Welcome to the discussion.

That is Hong Kong being player in a role of willing participant of international affairs.

Well, Lawrence, you know, stick to this content of the five-year plan.

One major centerpiece of the document is the northern metropolis.

Here, there's a lot of emphasis on its development.

And Chung has details from Hong Kong.

Seven major themes were mentioned, and that includes developing the northern metropolis, upgrading the city's social security and livelihood system, and safeguarding Hong Kong's economic and social development with security and good governance.

The chief executive mentioned that the blueprint has 22 major indicators, 17 are anticipatory goals, and five are binding targets.

The binding targets are mostly environment-related.

for the future development and prosperity of the special administration in comparison to the mainland.

The five-year plan also aims to speed up the development of the Northern Metropolis, a landmark development project near the city's border area with the Chinese mainland.

And Chief Executive Jiang Li has pledged to forge the Northern Metropolis into a model for quality living in Hong Kong.

So how do you think the Northern Metropolis could look like five years from now?

The northern metropolis region is close to the border of Shenzhen and Shenzhen has now become one of the most prosperous and dynamic cities on the mainland.

Now, traditionally, Hong Kong development is focused on Kowloon, on the Hong Kong island, and the northern part is relatively underdeveloped, although there are more and more modern living compounds being established.

Now, in the next five years plan, where the northern part of Hong Kong on the border of Shenzhen, they have relatively more land resources.

In the future, I think this advantage will be even strengthened further.