Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced on Thursday that the 2026 Policy Address public consultation will officially commence on Monday, while at the same time the government will collect views on both the special administrative region’s first Five-Year Plan and the Policy Address in the remaining five-year plan consultation sessions.

Launched on June 15, so far the five-year plan public consultation has collected nearly 1,000 opinion statements during over 10 sessions, with Lee noticing that many submissions address both the long-term five-year direction and the annual targets.

Speaking to the media after hearing from 33 post-secondary education representatives on Thursday, Lee said that regardless of whether the public submits their input on the two topics separately or together, the government will collate and analyze all feedback, and incorporate it appropriately into the drafting considerations for both documents.

Lee said that the five-year plan and the Policy Address are “in the same vein” of governance: The former serves as a “forward-looking, strategic, and directional” blueprint that sets out clear development direction for the SAR’s economic and social progress over the next five years, while the latter details annual policy deployments with specific targets to respond to plan’s direction, and introduces timely policy adjustments.

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He added that he and his team will attend online and offline consultation sessions, and engage directly with communities to collect views. The government will also soon launch a dedicated website, Facebook page, email address, phone number, and fax line for public submissions for the Policy Address.

Contact the writer at stacyshi@chinadailyhk.com