Political parties in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are actively submitting proposals for inclusion in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s maiden Policy Address, to be delivered in October. The parties are presenting detailed advice relating to talent attraction, poverty alleviation and youth development.

On Thursday, the city’s two major political parties — the New People’s Party and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions — put forward their suggestions to the chief executive.

After their meeting with Lee, Chairperson of the New People’s Party Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee told a press briefing that the party had advised the government to introduce new policies to attract talent — such as waiving extra stamp duty that buyers from overseas have to pay when buying a local property — and to encourage fertility, such as making a HK$20,000 ($2,550) fertility bonus available to families with newborn babies.

These measures proposed were aimed at relieving some of the most severe problems facing people in Hong Kong, including an aging population, a low fertility rate and shortages in overseas talent, said Ip, who is also a member of the city’s Executive Council and the Legislative Council.

After tabling suggestions covering 12 areas to the government with other Federation of Trade Unions members, lawmaker Joephy Chan Wing-yan told the media that the government should further ease the financial burden on young people by subsidizing college students’ tuition loans. 

Chan also encouraged the government to provide more affordable workspaces for young people looking to start their own businesses, for example, by allowing regular holiday or weekend bazaars to be held in idle parks and street markets.

The government could also consider offering free tickets for high-speed train journeys to local young people to boost their incentives to explore the vast Chinese mainland, after cross-border travel restrictions have been lifted, Chan added. 

Another FTU lawmaker Bill Tang Ka-piu focused on the city’s poverty-alleviation efforts. He advised the authorities to establish a designated task force to identify the challenges faced by less-privileged families in order to provide them with more targeted support.

Priority should be given to families with school-age children living in subdivided flats, single parents, families with members suffering from chronic illnesses, as well as vulnerable ethnic minority families, Tang said.

The New People’s Party also suggested that the SAR government could propose to the central government the idea of Hong Kong building a high-tech container terminal, together with Shenzhen and Zhuhai, at Guishan Island, near Zhuhai.

The party believes that as many container terminals around the world have been relocated from urban areas, Hong Kong should also relocate its container terminal at Kwai Chung to free up land for other development.

The meetings followed similar discussion events held earlier by the government with the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong and the Liberal Party. The city’s largest political party — the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong — said it will also meet with Lee later this month.

Members of the public are also invited to submit their views on what should be put forward in the Policy Address by participating in consultation sessions organized by the government. As of Thursday, two such sessions had been held —on Aug 20 and 27 respectively in Tsuen Wan and Southern district.

Contact the writers at lindaxi@chinadailyhk.com