Where HK once led

Tang urges Hong Kong to formulate its vision for future economic growth, and foster the development of a headquarters economy, before embarking on talent attraction programs.

“When strategic industries of various business segments set up shop in Hong Kong, there will be demand for talent. These enterprises will bring their senior management and technology talents to the city, initiating a virtuous cycle of talent attraction,” says Tang.

Tang sees Hong Kong embarking on high-tech economic transformation, focusing on innovation and technology, as well as new industrialization. However, an aging working population cannot support this kind of economic transformation.

Siu advocates reforming Hong Kong’s education system to nurture more scientific and technical professionals to meet the need for high-level economic transformation.

“School-industry partnerships can align school curricula with industry development, and students can gain practical internships provided by industry partners. Collaboration between industry and education can be fostered through internships to train local I&T talent and technicians,” suggests Siu.

A population policy involves a wide range of cross-disciplinary issues such as family-friendly facilities, gender balance, tax breaks, relevant education, social welfare, people-centric town planning, and quality of life measures. Reducing all that to “human resources planning” is not an adequate substitute for a holistic population policy.

What's next?

Establish high-level body for holistic population policy.
Boost fertility via child-care centers and parental time-off.
Increase recruitment of the fit elderly and women.
Import foreign workers for manual work shortages and selected high-end work.
Reform tertiary education for I&T transformation.

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