Hong Kong SAR issues government achievement report

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Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Leung Chun-ying said he is pleased with the accomplishments made by his administration in the past five years, despite the challenges encountered, ahead of Tuesday’s Executive Council meeting, his last one.

Speaking to the media, he said a report on the work of five-year term he served would be released, in order to “summarize the progress and achievements of our work.”

The Report on the Work of the Fourth-term Government 2012-2017 covers nine fields, including the economy, housing and transport, land development, poverty alleviation elderly care and environmental protection.

Photo from Report on the Work of the Fourth-term Government 2012-2017

Economy of HK remains at 2.4 percent growth annually, higher than advanced economies

The economic growth of Hong Kong SAR has remained at an average of 2.4 percent in the past five years, which was faster than the 1.7 percent in the other advanced economies during the same period, according to the report.

Meanwhile, inflation also eased from more than 5 percent in 2011 to 2.3 percent in 2016, while employment increased by 210,000 in the past five years to 3.79 million in 2016.

Education heavily invested

In the past five years, Hong Kong invested heavily in education, making it a priority on the government work agenda. The recurrent education expenditure increased from 60 billion US dollars in the period of 2012-2013 to an estimated 75.5 billion US dollars in the period of 2016-2017.

The report also says that the participation rate of publicly-funded degree programs has also increased from 21 percent to 28 percent.

Lights light up the skyline of Hong Kong, China in the evening of June 8, 2017. /CFP Photo

Innovation and technology key to development

The report also says that the Innovation and Technology Bureau was established in 2015, with an additional 18 billion US dollars invested, and further 10 billion US dollars reserved to promote the key sector.

Many programs were introduced during the past five years to boost the sector, including having the Chinese National Engineering Research Centres improved from one to six in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong SAR for the past five years also pushed forward the construction of a large number of transport infrastructure facilities, including the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

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