China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) marks an important stage in the country’s long journey toward socialist modernization by 2035. Like previous national plans, it is not just an economic forecast; it is a governing document. It sets priorities, signals direction, allocates resources and attention, and shapes how government, markets and society should work together.
The plan comes at a difficult time. China faces geopolitical rivalry, technological containment, demographic pressures, property-market adjustment, climate risks, and a more fragmented global economy. In response, the plan emphasizes high-quality development, technological self-reliance, a modern industrial system, stronger domestic demand, national security, people’s well-being, and green transformation. These are not separate themes; they are meant to reinforce one another.
This is why the plan deserves careful reading in Hong Kong. It is not only about what the nation will do, but also about where Hong Kong fits in.
One of the most important features of the national plan is the continued role of “green” as a development strategy. China’s green transformation did not appear suddenly. It has been a long journey through successive five-year plans.
Earlier plans focused on energy efficiency, pollution control, and resource conservation. Later plans placed more emphasis on green development, carbon intensity, ecological protection, low-carbon industries, and the “Beautiful China” vision.
The 15th Five-Year Plan takes this further. It places green and low-carbon development within the broader task of Chinese modernization. The plan includes many quantifiable goals.
Moreover, official commentary describes harmony between humanity and nature as a distinctive feature of Chinese modernization. This matters because “green” in China is no longer only about environmental protection. It is part of industrial upgrading, technological innovation, energy security, public health, rural revitalization, urban development, and international competitiveness. It is a way to foster new growth rather than a constraint on it.
The deeper foundation is “ecological civilization”. This concept has become both a Party mandate and a national mandate. The 18th Party Congress incorporated ecological civilization into the overall framework of socialist construction, and it was enshrined in the national Constitution in 2018. It therefore has political, constitutional and developmental significance. It tells officials that environmental quality, resource efficiency and ecological protection are part of the legitimacy of development, not optional extras.
Hong Kong must understand this. Too often, climate, biodiversity and environmental policy are still treated locally as sectoral matters — important, but somehow separate from finance, trade, shipping, technology, talent and land use planning. The plan points in the opposite direction. It treats green transformation as part of the architecture of development.
If Hong Kong gets this right, its first five-year plan will do more than align with the country. It will help modernize Hong Kong’s own governance, moving from fragmented initiatives to integrated missions, from passive response to strategic action, and from policy ambition to implementation at scale
The plan also gives Hong Kong a clear role. It supports Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial center, shipping center, trade center, and aviation hub. It also supports Hong Kong’s role in the offshore renminbi business, asset management, risk management, innovation and technology, legal and dispute resolution services, intellectual property trading, and East-meets-West cultural exchanges. Newer roles include building a commodity trading ecosystem and becoming a high-value-added supply chain services hub.
The Northern Metropolis and Hong Kong’s role as an international hub for high-caliber talent are also explicitly supported. This is a broad mandate. It is not enough to say Hong Kong should “align” with the national plan. Alignment must be operational.
Hong Kong has special characteristics under “one country, two systems” — common law, international finance, global connectivity, professional services, open markets, universities, regulators, philanthropy and civil society capacity. These characteristics are not incidental. They are precisely where Hong Kong can contribute.
The challenge is governance. Hong Kong’s first five-year plan is therefore highly significant. The very process of preparing a Hong Kong five-year plan can strengthen executive-led government, improve top-level design, enhance cross-bureau coordination, create greater policy continuity, sharpen fiscal priorities, deepen public policy research, and mobilize society around shared goals.
But planning alone is not enough. Hong Kong’s five-year plan should not become a compilation of departmental initiatives. It should not simply provide a list of initiatives like a shopping list. Nor should it be a slogan-driven document. It must become a disciplined framework for mission-based policymaking. A mission-based approach starts with a clear question: What are the big outcomes Hong Kong must deliver in the next five years that both serve national development and strengthen Hong Kong’s own future?
For example, Hong Kong could define a mission to become Asia’s trusted platform for high-integrity green and transition finance. This would connect financial regulation, taxonomy development, disclosure, climate risk analytics, insurance, blended finance, bonds, carbon markets, and professional services. It would also support real projects: building retrofits, nature-based solutions, port and airport decarbonization, low-carbon logistics and climate adaptation.
A second mission could be to make the Northern Metropolis a demonstrator of green, resilient and innovation-led development. It would involve biodiversity, nature-based solutions, low-carbon buildings, including data centers, climate-resilient infrastructure, cross-border I&T collaboration, talent attraction, green finance and long-term stewardship.
A third mission could be to position Hong Kong as a high-value transition services hub for enterprises going global. This would draw together legal services; dispute resolution; intellectual-property trading; certification; environmental, social and governance (ESG) assurance; supply chain due diligence; commodity trading; trade finance; maritime services; and risk management.
A fourth mission could be to build Hong Kong into an international platform for climate risk and resilience. This would combine scientific modeling, insurance data, infrastructure planning, catastrophe risk, adaptation finance, and new product innovation. It would support Hong Kong, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Belt and Road markets, and other dense coastal cities facing similar risks.
To make such missions work, Hong Kong needs more than ambition. It needs governance capacity.
This is where we hope the 5-Pillar Model of Climate Governance, developed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, can help.
First, direction: Missions must be anchored in clear priorities, measurable outcomes, and a long-term vision of what Hong Kong seeks to achieve.
Second, leadership: Senior political and administrative leaders must be able to drive implementation, resolve trade-offs and maintain momentum across government.
Third, mainstreaming: Key concepts must be embedded across bureaus, departments, regulators and public bodies.
Fourth, finance and market creation: Public policy and public resources should be used strategically to crowd in private capital, reduce risk, aggregate demand and create investable pipelines.
Fifth, transparency and engagement: Progress must be credible, measurable and open to scrutiny, while business, professionals, academia and civil society should be brought in early to identify implementation problems, build trust and create shared ownership.
The 15th Five-Year Plan gives Hong Kong an opportunity to rethink its role. The national plan focuses on high-quality development, technological upgrading, green transformation, and greater openness amid changing global conditions. Hong Kong’s own plan should translate that direction into missions suited to its special strengths.
If Hong Kong gets this right, its first five-year plan will do more than align with the country. It will help modernize Hong Kong’s own governance, moving from fragmented initiatives to integrated missions, from passive response to strategic action, and from policy ambition to implementation at scale.
The author is the chief development strategist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Institute for the Environment.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
