Hong Kong’s leader takes rare step of singling out bureau for criticism in policy address

Hong Kong’s leader has taken the rare step of singling out the culture bureau for failing to meet goals in his latest policy address, calling on the minister to complete a development blueprint “as early as possible” and saying he would step in to monitor the progress.

Wednesday’s policy address highlighted six key performance indicators, or KPIs, that various government departments had failed to meet or had fallen behind on, but Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said there were “reasonable” causes for the delay in completion.

But Lee then took aim at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau for its delay in releasing a blueprint for growing the art and creative industries sector.

“I have instructed the secretary for culture, sports and tourism to complete the task as early as possible,” Lee stated in the annex of the policy address, which was not read out during his presentation at the Legislative Council.

In his 2022 policy address, Lee said culture minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung would lead the way in mapping out plans to enhance the ecosystem for the sector’s development.

The plans would be laid out in the “Blueprint for Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Development”, Lee said at the time.