Lee to Attempt Luring Talent to Hong Kong

Lee gives his maiden policy speech in the Legislative Council

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has delivered his first policy address that clocked in at two hours and 45 minutes... longer than Chinese President Xi Jinping's summary of the work speech a few days ago at the National Congress.

In it there was no mention of Hong Kong going to "0+0", or zero quarantine, nor was there a hint that people could use barbecue pits anytime soon. They have been closed indefinitely throughout the pandemic.

What was mentioned that caught our attention was Lee's keenness to entice new talent to the city to make up for the brain drain in the past year of tens of thousands of Hongkongers emigrating overseas.

Lee acknowledges over 140,000 have left HK

"Over the past two years, the local workforce shrank by about 140,000. Apart from actively nurturing and retaining local talents, the government will proactively trawl the world for talents," his speech transcript said.

Lee announced the city's 17 economic and trade offices will expand to include offices specifically to lure business and talent to Hong Kong. Not only will they try to lure professionals who earn at least HK$2.5 million a year, but also recent graduates from the world's top 100 universities who have three years' work experience.

The government will also make it easier for companies to hire people to come to Hong Kong to work by removing the requirement to prove the difficulty of hiring locally, while employment visas will be extended to three years (currently two years).

And those foreigners who live and work in Hong Kong for seven years not only can become permanent residents, but also get a stamp duty refund if they buy property (if they can afford it).

His speech aims to lure foreign talent to HK

While all these measures are all good and well, if Hong Kong doesn't completely relax its Covid-19 policies, people still will not come. The city has also had a terribly battered reputation following the 2019 protests and implementation of the national security law could spook some people from coming. 

One observer sarcastically interpreted these measures as Lee's effort to get overseas Hongkongers to come back into the fold -- but it's unclear which ones he wants to employ and the ones he wants to imprison.

It's really hard to see how Lee can really attract the people he wants to work long-term in Hong Kong unless they have been living under a rock for the past three years at least.

How did the market react? The Hang Seng Index had started slightly up before the speech, but afterwards lost its gains to trade 1.9 percent lower.