Blog

Secret of the colour

We face different challenges when preparing the Budget Speech every year. We need to address the various requests and expectations from the community, and consult stakeholders on their views during the drafting stage. However, throughout the whole preparation process, there is one thing which we can make our own decision and implement without consulting stakeholders – the colour of the Speech’s cover.

The media usually shows interest in the cover colour. Besides personal preference, the choice of the colour, to certain extend, reflects the challenges and feeling towards the economic situation at the time. When the global economy was booming last year, the colour we chose for the Speech’s cover was a relatively vibrant one. Turning to this year, the current economic outlook has become uncertain. It would be a pivotal stage with both risks and opportunities, and we should keep faith and work hard. Against this background, we have chosen pale green as the cover colour for this year. The thinking behind is that Hong Kong is just like fertile soil to us, but we still need to sow, irrigate and cultivate to produce a good harvest.

The Budget will be announced in only a few days. Some of the measures covered were proposed by citizens and representatives from different sectors. Of course there are some suggestions which we cannot accept from policy viewpoint, and there are some others which we would continue to follow up outside the Budget context. Anyway, my team and I have paid our utmost effort to give our very best in the process.

Lastly, I would also like to express my gratitude to all the friends and organisations who have offered their valuable comments.

February 24, 2019