16 June 2023
[Latest update] Dr Stephen Wong, the Head of the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit, share his thoughts (updated at 20:00 on 16 June 2023)
The Chief Executive’s Policy Unit (CEPU) Expert Group held its first meeting today and hosted a post-meeting reception to welcome its members.
In concluding the three sessions of meeting today, Dr Stephen Wong, the Head of the CEPU, shared his thoughts as follows:
1. Members were responsive and well prepared: The overall attendance of the meeting was over 95 percent. Despite the busy schedules of some members who frequently travelled around different countries and regions, they were most willing to change their itineraries in order to attend the first meeting of the CEPU Expert Group. Some members had put forward before the meeting their suggestions in writing via their respective research liaison officers assigned by the CEPU and exchanged preliminary views. He was much grateful to each and every member of the Expert Group for their enthusiasm and dedication.
2. Recognising the importance of achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong: Members agreed that achieving high-quality development was of utmost importance to the future of Hong Kong. We need to dovetail with national development strategies, proactively integrate into the overall development of the country and achieve high-quality development. Comprising members of high-level experts and scholars and outstanding leaders of various fields from the Mainland, as well as renowned scholars, industry leaders and elites of Hong Kong, the Expert Group brings together different mind-sets and research perspectives in brainstorming, which is most inspiring with respect to the research endeavours of the CEPU.
3. Embracing a new paradigm: Members agreed that Hong Kong was advancing from stability to prosperity. The new term of Government, which has brought a fresh atmosphere to the city, is more proactive and forward-looking in helping Hong Kong integrate into the overall development of the country, coping with the complex global trends and tackling social issues in Hong Kong.
4. Showing confidence: Members are fully confident of Hong Kong’s future given its advantages which make the city irreplaceable. By gauging extensive views and pooling collective wisdom, we will definitely find solutions to different social problems.
[Latest update] First meeting concluded successfully (updated at 18:00 on 16 June 2023)
The Chief Executive’s Policy Unit (CEPU) Expert Group held its first meeting today. The meeting was held in three sessions according to the streams members belong to, namely the Economic Advancement Expert Group, the Social Development Expert Group and the Research Strategy Expert Group. All the three sessions were chaired by Dr Stephen Wong, the Head of the CEPU.
Dr Stephen Wong chaired the sessions of meeting of the Social Development Expert Group and the Research Strategy Expert Group in the afternoon. As in the first session of meeting of the Economic Advancement Expert Group, he delivered an opening address to welcome all members of the two Expert Groups and extended his gratitude to them for accepting the appointment to the CEPU Expert Group.
The theme of the meeting was “achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong”, and the discussion atmosphere was lively. High-quality development is the top task of building China into a modern socialist country in all aspects, and it is a new theme in the new development stage. Members of the Expert Group agreed that high-quality development was important for Hong Kong to progress from stability to prosperity. Hong Kong and the country were inextricably linked in terms of high-quality development, and Hong Kong should leverage its unique position and strengths to contribute to the high-quality development of the country. Members of the Expert Group noted that the new term of Government had been committed to charting a brighter tomorrow for Hong Kong, bringing a fresh atmosphere to the city. In recent years, Hong Kong has transitioned from chaos to order, and now embarked on a new journey from stability to prosperity. Members are fully confident of Hong Kong’s future prospects, and as long as Hong Kong could fully play its role as the gateway between the country and the world under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems” and pursue high-quality development, economic prosperity will be attained and people’s livelihood and well-being will be enhanced, despite the different social problems and complicated geopolitical situations facing Hong Kong.
Dr Stephen Wong said, “I am very grateful to all members for attending today’s meeting despite their busy schedules and for offering their insights from different perspectives on ‘achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong’. It marks a good start to the work of the Expert Group. As the important research partners of the CEPU, they will offer their views and suggestions that can definitely enrich the perspectives and connotations of our policy researches, especially in strengthening our capacity in conducting strategic and forward-looking researches internally in accordance with the Chief Executive’s priorities and policy objectives. We will carefully collate and analyse the valuable views and suggestions put forward by the members at the meeting, and interact closely with them through the pre-established liaison mechanism, including at least quarterly engagements as well as further discussions on various issues, with a view to pooling collective wisdom and making concerted efforts to provide quality policy research results for Hong Kong to achieve high-quality development in economic development, social progress and other various aspects.”
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[Latest update] Morning session of meeting ended (updated at 12:00 on 16 June 2023)
The Chief Executive Policy Unit (CEPU) Expert Group just finished the first session of meeting this morning.
Today was the first time the CEPU Expert Group conducted group meetings among all its members. The meetings were held in three sessions according to the streams the expert group members belong to, namely the Economic Advancement Expert Group, the Social Development Expert Group and the Research Strategy Expert Group. All the three sessions were chaired by Dr Stephen Wong, the Head of the CEPU.
The first session of meeting held this morning was the Economic Advancement Expert Group meeting. Dr Stephen Wong welcomed all members to attend the first group meeting.
In his welcome address, Dr Stephen Wong thanked members for accepting the invitation of the CEPU to be members of the Expert Group. He said that the CEPU was tasked to conduct in-house, preliminary and forward-looking research as policy reference for the Chief Executive (CE). The research mainly focused on four key aspects where the CEPU would make contributions as expected by the CE:
(1) to advocate for and assist in the formulation of long-term and strategic policies from a forward-thinking perspective; (2) to keep abreast of the national development, including directions, plans and policies, analyse and suggest areas of significance in dovetailing with the integration into the overall development of the country; (3) to examine international relations and situations as well as analyse opportunities and risks for the Government to seize opportunities and prevent risks; and (4) to grasp the sentiments of Hong Kong citizens, understand the general direction and focus of their concerns, identify factors that are conducive to social harmony and stability, and assist in decision-making directions and formulation of measures.
Dr Stephen Wong said that he, together with his team, would fully tap into the valuable experience, excellent knowledge and unique insights of the members to enrich and reinforce the in-house research work of the CEPU. He hoped that the CEPU and members of the Expert Group would establish close, in-depth and precise communication in confidence in the coming year. To this end, the CEPU has established four major co-operation mechanisms, including (1) Liaison mechanism — each member of the Expert Group will be supported by a senior researcher of the CEPU, who will serve as the member’s personal research liaison officer to offer timely, appropriate and targeted exchanges and assistance, including at least quarterly engagements; (2) Research results interface mechanism — the CEPU is more than willing to take into account the research results of the members so as to enrich its research perspectives and content; (3) Small group exchanges mechanism — based on the research topics, the CEPU will conduct in-depth dialogues with relevant Expert Group members who are familiar with such topics, so as to listen to their views and suggestions; and (4) External review mechanism on examining the Policy Research Funding Schemes — members will also have the opportunity to serve as external reviewers of the two Policy Research Funding Schemes administered by the CEPU to help assess relevant research proposals and give advice on the funding applications.
Dr Stephen Wong said that the topic under discussion today was “achieving high-quality development for Hong Kong”, which was an important issue for Hong Kong to integrate into the overall development of the country, as well as one of the core research areas of the CEPU. The first meeting of the Expert Group today marked a good start to its work. In fact, it is clearly stated in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that “the pursuit of high-quality development is first and foremost to build a modern socialist country in all respects”. In his important speech delivered on 1 July last year, President Xi also remarked that “proactively integrating itself into the country’s overall development and carving out its role in national strategies, Hong Kong has maintained its strengths in its high degree of openness and in aligning with international rules. In doing so, the region has been playing an important role in raising China’s opening up to a higher level with wider coverage and scope”. Therefore, it is definitely an issue as to how Hong Kong can give full play to its distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support of the Motherland and being closely connected to the world under the “One Country, Two Systems”, and become a benchmark city for international business amidst the country’s high-quality development.
The other two sessions of meeting of the Social Development Expert Group and the Research Strategy Expert Group will be held in the afternoon.
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