The new SAR government aims at results. Among them, the goal of developing the innovation, technology, cultural and creative industries is very important. The Financial Secretary, who manages land and warehouses, also plays an important role in this regard. The new position of Deputy Financial Secretary, Wong Wai Lun, is even more important. Directly responsible for solving problems such as land and housing.
Apart from being responsible for land and taxation, the Financial Secretary also needs to straighten out many internal affairs of the government before it can truly develop the industry.
Take, for example, the government's procurement policy. Currently, the government adopts a very simple and international procurement policy of "the one with the lowest price".
This policy is unreasonable, because the whole world is promoting "bid negotiation", that is, the government needs to know how much money to spend is reasonable, and through research and analysis, find a suitable bidding model.
At present, the Hong Kong government adopts a model of uniform conditions and voting. Whether it is government projects or government internal services, it can be said that it is tailor-made for large companies in the United Kingdom, the United States and Hong Kong.
For example, many government tenders for projects and consultancy reports require companies to have at least 20 million or more in their bank accounts.
How can SMEs in Hong Kong participate in this game?
Why is government bidding and procurement so important?
For example, to promote the I&T industry, the government needs a lot of I&T services. If the current low-price-get-the-price policy is adopted blindly and focuses on hiring large international companies, it is impossible for local companies to succeed.
Procurement policy is also a way to nurture the industry.
Many places, such as Singapore, have adopted measures that give priority to Singapore companies.
There are several approaches in Singapore. If you need to do some more complex projects and have no previous experience in Singapore, you will ask Singaporean academic institutions or professional circles to take the lead in cooperating with some large international companies, and absorb the knowledge of these international consulting companies through the research process. Knowledge that translates into the Singapore Tertiary System.
In many areas in Hong Kong, this kind of cooperation between the academic and professional sectors is also needed to balance commercial interests and social interests, such as the redevelopment of large-scale old districts and the development of the New Territories North.
Knowledge transfer can also be done.
But Hong Kong's current bidding system is simply impossible to do well.
Moreover, the entire bidding process and price, officials basically do not need to be held accountable.
Singapore officials need to do their homework and study all financial matters. Just like when we go to the market to buy vegetables, how much does a meal cost and how to eat, we have a concept in the process of buying vegetables.
The current bidding model of the Hong Kong government is simply laissez-faire. The so-called "low price wins", is it true that the price is low?
Why is the average price per square foot of construction projects in Hong Kong 10 times more expensive than in Shenzhen?
Is it because several big companies come and go, and other companies have no conditions to enter the bid at all?
If Hong Kong wants to promote industrial development, it must create a large number of SMEs, because only a large number of SMEs can support a large industry.
A large enterprise also needs the support of a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises, because the industry is a regular army, not a real estate developer who builds a building and sells it.
To be a big industry requires a large number of manpower support, especially in innovation and technology, it needs to have different levels of division of labor and systems like the military.
Therefore, government procurement policies must be reclassified, strategically and systematically.
The Financial Secretary must adjust the current procurement policy, such as whether it is possible to stipulate that the Architectural Services Department will assign a certain percentage of projects to local small and medium-sized architects. International companies can also participate, but they should cooperate with local small and medium-sized companies to enter the bid. .
In fact, the whole world does this, why can't Hong Kong do it?
To promote industrial development, land resources also need to intensify efforts to develop.
I&T industries, creative industries and cultural industries all need land space.
To be an international cultural capital, you need land.
One possibility is to encourage real estate developers to build cultural venues.
For example, by encouraging the construction of cultural facilities through land deeds, there will be corresponding benefits when they are built, and I believe that developers will be encouraged to create space needed by the cultural and creative industries and cultural cities.
This can be directly enacted by the Financial Secretary.
In addition, the Government has many parks and unused spaces. For example, the FEHD has more than a few thousand vacant stalls that have not been used for a long time. Is it possible to have innovative uses?
The application at the bottom of the flyover is the same.
Since the land is managed by the Financial Secretary, there will be no problem if the Financial Secretary wants to regulate it.
Back then, the United Kingdom asked Peng Lizhi to be the financial secretary, and he did a lot of reform work in a drastic manner.
I believe that the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, will lead the new team to promote the development of the industry with innovative thinking.
The most important thing is to have goals. From a development perspective, I&T takes a long time to do, but food and culture can see results within five years.
The key is that the government needs to provide space, and this requires the government to adjust its overall land policy and space policy, including some experimental plans, in order to be successful.
Therefore, what the Financial Secretary needs to do has two priorities: one is to change the government's bidding and procurement strategy, and the other is to develop land space.
If these two points can be properly adjusted, it will unleash the creative power of a large number of Hong Kong society and create a more diversified development ecology.
Hu Enwei
is a member of the National Hong Kong and Macao Research Association, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and Zuni.
Icosahedron United Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer
(The article is purely the author's opinion and does not represent the position of Hong Kong 01.)