Officials receptive as 5-year plan submissions come in

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse on Saturday said the government had received many submissions for Hong Kong's inaugural five-year plan. A two-month public consultation began on Monday. Speaking on RTHK, she said time was limited with publication scheduled for the third quarter. But she said the government would listen to all sorts of views. “Our attitude towards the public consultation process is relatively open-minded. As the chief executive has said, we will not have any leading questions,” Tse said. “We hope everyone can give as much of their opinion as possible so that a wide range of ideas can be collected to reach a social consensus or connection.” Tse said the plan will include only major indicators, as the document is aimed at setting the general direction for the SAR’s future development. “There cannot be too many indicators; it cannot be too fixed," she said. "In the chief executive's annual policy address, there are already a lot of key performance indicators, our so-called KPIs. There are a lot. Those are the breakdowns – specific and detailed. “During the process of execution and implementation, they help us identify what the milestones are and what needs to be achieved at each stage. "This is one of the areas where the five-year plan and the Policy Address can complement each other.” Tse said she believes the plan will remain sustainable and unaffected by any potential change in government next year. Edited by Robert Kemp