Hong Kong aims to publish first 5-year plan in third quarter

Hong Kong plans to publish its first “strategic, forward-looking and operable” five-year blueprint in the third quarter of this year, the city’s constitutional affairs chief has said, as authorities launched a public consultation while rejecting concerns that the move signalled a shift towards a planned economy.As the government launched a two-month public consultation on the blueprint on Monday, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa stressed that the road map, designed to better align the city with national development, would “complement” Hong Kong’s annual budget and chief executive’s policy address.“The five-year plan is a high-level strategic guiding document which defines the direction of Hong Kong’s development in the next five years and outlines the key tasks,” she said during a press briefing.