Mrs Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Legislative Council member, discussed three challenges facing governance in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) during a seminar organised by School of Continuing and Professional Education (SCOPE) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) on 27 March.

 

Mrs Ip and Dr James Sung Lap-kung, Academic Coordinator in SCOPE, were participating in a seminar titled “Challenges of future HKSAR governance”. More than 150 teachers, students and alumni attended the event.

 

In her address, Mrs Ip said universal suffrage in Hong Kong would proceed smoothly in accordance with the original timetable, but she identified three main political and economic challenges.

 

Firstly, she said, the Government had to take appropriate measures to increase the supply of land because of the current shortage. Secondly, Hong Kong was short of professionally qualified personnel, compared to Singapore, where 900,000 entrants had entered the labour force in recent years. Thirdly, the on-going political tug-of-war is disrupting the progress of the plans to implement policies that will help to improve people’s lives in Hong Kong.

 

If these challenges can be overcome, Hong Kong will experience much more successful political and economic development.

 

Mrs Ip advised young people not to pay too much attention to material gain in their career planning but instead should consider adopting a more public service mindset and work for the government.