Blog

It all starts with your vote

Today is the District Council (DC) election day. I cast my vote at a polling station of my constituency this morning. The whole process was very smooth, taking just a few minutes. Outside the polling station, a voter told me that he came to vote before going to have tea, so as to play his part for the better development of the community. I will soon be heading to the community to hand out leaflets and appeal to our fellow residents to cast their votes. Let’s build a better home together!

Smooth voting process at the polling station this morning

Over the past few weeks, the atmosphere of the DC election has been growing in intensity. Many fellow residents and colleagues told me that they would go and vote in the DC election. They see this as fulfilling their civic responsibility; but they also care much about their community and hope to elect the right people for building a better community together.

In today’s DC election, there are a total of 44 geographical constituencies in the 18 districts across the territory, with a total of 171 eligible candidates running for 88 seats. There is competition in each constituency. In one district, there are 6 candidates. This election has truly restored the original mission of the DC to serve the community and focus on district matters. Candidates have different emphases in terms of their visions and manifestoes. Some focus on the promotion of green initiatives, while some care about fostering a more vibrant local economy. Please cast a vote on the candidate you prefer.

Nothing about people’s livelihood is trivial. Community affairs involve matters of various scales, from road junction designs to greening or recreational facilities, and from environmental hygiene to better co-ordination of local stakeholders’ needs in taking forward major infrastructure projects. For community work to be thoughtful and effective, there needs to be healthy interaction between public views and policy measures. Apart from communicating public views, DC Members should also put forward constructive advice on community affairs to the Government.

I visited a restaurant and a market in Southern District today, appealing for the public’s active participation in the election. With your votes, our community will surely become better!

I visited the Companies Registry and the Land Registry last week, calling for colleagues to vote in the DC election.

For example, our 18 districts are full of valuable resources with distinct character, such as local streets, restaurants, shops historical buildings, and even “checked-in” spots. These places, where properly explored and promoted together with interesting district stories, can attract more local and inbound tourists who will visit and spend there, thus boosting the local economy. DC Members understand their communities best. They can put forward constructive proposals to the Government for local residents, and contribute to stimulating the local economy.

Looking forward, in addition to working together to build a better community, we will also focus on promoting economic development and improving people's livelihoods. It is critical that we cope with the highly complex external situation as well as cyclical changes in interest rates and the broader economic environment, with calm and flexibility. In a bid to enhance the competitiveness, resilience and diversity of Hong Kong's economy, we need to develop new industries, seek new partnerships, attract new capital and explore new markets.

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week. CATL has officially landed in Hong Kong.

After more than a year of hard work, the new-term Government has made some good progress in promoting the development of new industries. Many innovative and technology (I&T) strategic enterprises are coming to Hong Kong. Following the landing of global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca which will establish a research and development (R&D) centre here, there was another exciting piece of news: last week, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. CATL has officially landed in Hong Kong. It indeed has cast its vote of confidence in our future I&T development.

As a global leader in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage batteries, CATL will establish its global headquarters and R&D centre in Hong Kong, investing a total of HK$1.2 billion and creating about 500 R&D positions. With more and more strategic enterprises setting up their businesses in Hong Kong, they will also bring together their upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises in their respective industries, thus promoting the development of a more vibrant I&T ecosystem in Hong Kong and creating strong impetus for the entire I&T cluster.

Last week, Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative Institute held the PRIORITY Summit in Asia in Hong Kong. I attended the opening ceremony and spoke at one of the thematic sessions.

In terms of attracting new capital and opening up new markets, our relationships with different regions, such as the Middle East and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are quickly getting closer. Last week, Saudi Arabia-based Future Investment Initiative (FII)’s inaugural PRIORITY Summit in Asia was successfully held in Hong Kong, attracting over 1,000 participants. About two-thirds of them were from the Middle East and other parts of the world, including political and business heavyweights from Africa and Latin America.

I still remember that after I attended the FII Summit in Riyadh last October, I started discussing with FII about organising an Asian edition of the Summit. After more than a year, this has become reality: we all witnessed its Summit in Asia held in Hong Kong, and felt the positive feedback that the Summit generated. This has shown that so long as we accurately grasp the global situation and work to build mutual trust with our partners, more good outcomes of collaboration will materialise.

The full implementation of the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” has better secured Hong Kong’s social stability, allowing us to focus our efforts on pursuing economic growth, advancing development and improving people’s livelihood. Together, let’s look forward to a better community with more inclusive, diversified and robust economic development; and a society that is firmly moving forward, where everyone can enjoy life.

December 10, 2023