Infrastructure Concerns Over Early Move-in Plan

A former Housing Authority member, Cheung Tat-tong, said John Lee could face challenges in trying to implement his plan on shortening the waiting time for public housing.

In his election manifesto unveiled on Friday, the chief executive candidate proposed allowing tenants to move into new public housing estates earlier, even when the surrounding infrastructure is not fully ready.

"Housing projects today are not just pure construction projects, it is kind of a social project. People expect everything's ready after they move in," Cheung said.

"A good heart may sometimes not turn into an anticipated result, so the new government has to be aware of that."

DAB lawmaker Edward Lau Kwok-fan called Lee's plan "practical", citing Queen’s Hill Estate in Fanling as an example where people were issued occupation permits of some blocks that were ready while construction continued.

But he hopes it would be a temporary measure, saying infrastructure should still be a priority in the long run.

The average waiting time for a public housing unit has risen steadily in recent years, and currently stands at six years.

On Lee's plan to fight poverty and provide support to 1,000 secondary school children, Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said the focus should be on improving the English proficiency of youngsters.

"The biggest problem with alleviating cross-generation poverty is to improve the English level of grassroot students so that they can have a fair chance of getting into university together with the others," Tien said.

A member of the Commission on Poverty, Sze Lai-shan from the Society for Community Organisation, said Lee's proposals do not go far enough in helping those in need.

Sze said the scheme involving the training of secondary pupils by businesses and NGOs covers too few people. She said there are about 250,000 underprivileged youngsters in Hong Kong, and called for more resources to help them.

On support for the elderly, Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) lawmaker Bill Tang welcomed suggestions to relax the criteria for receiving a higher amount of living allowance.

Tang also pointed out that with an expanding ageing population, Lee could consider further measures such as making sure people get a fixed return in their MPF schemes.

IT sector lawmaker Duncan Chiu, meanwhile, welcomed Lee's idea to develop the SAR into an international innovation and technology hub.

"I believe he would definitely quantify in KPI (key performance indicator) and quantify in what to do like research and development. He mentioned a big part on R&D and R&D commercialisation and method we can do to match the research and the commercialisation area, including private investor. I think that's a very important message," Chiu said.

Lawmaker Stanley Ng, who's also the FTU's president, voiced support for the manifesto, saying it's comprehensive and responded to people’s needs. He hopes Lee could lead different sectors in society in resolving social divisions.

The sole non-establishment lawmaker, Tik Chi-yuen, expressed disappointment that Lee’s blueprint did not address universal suffrage.