HK youth set sights on plan benefits

Young Hong Kong representatives of various sectors are eying opportunities brought by the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), noting the city's youngsters will be the biggest beneficiaries from the plan and related policies.

They also called for more ways to be provided to allow the city's young people to further understand the nation's major development policies and strategies, so that they can set their own goals and find suitable career paths while meeting the country's overall demands.

The 14th Five-Year Plan, the outline of which was approved by the National People's Congress in March, encouraged Hong Kong to buttress its standing as an international financial, transportation and trade center, and a center for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region.

It also envisaged Hong Kong developing as an international aviation hub, an international innovation and technology hub, a regional intellectual property trading center, and a hub for arts and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.

Nixie Lam Lam, a Hong Kong member of the All-China Youth Federation, said on Thursday that the 14th Five-Year Plan, which drew up Hong Kong's development directions and pointed out its roles in the nation's development, could help the city solve one of the long-standing problems that many young people face－a lack of multiple paths to move upward.

Lam, who is also a nonofficial member of Hong Kong's Youth Development Commission, said that despite the plan and policies related to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area being in place, there's still a huge information gap between students in the city from wealthy and impoverished families.

She said lots of work needs to be done to help the city's grassroots students acquire information on the latest national development policies and discover related opportunities.

Gordon Lam Chi-wing, chairman of the Hong Kong Technology Association, said that in the plan, the central government expressed support for Hong Kong strengthening its advantages in finance and the offshore renminbi business, which was good news for high-tech startups based in the Bay Area.

Gordon Lam said Hong Kong is capable of playing a big role to better assist technology startups with great potential in capital raising and financing.

He encouraged the city's young people to think about how to play a win-win game－how to make use of the opportunities rendered by policies to explore career paths that suit their own development and how to make full use of their expertise and skills to contribute to the development of the city and the country.