Beijing’s top man in Hong Kong visits ‘cage home’ and medical service as part of drive to ‘listen directly’ to the people
- Luo Huining stresses need to come up with solutions to housing shortage as he visits people from different walks of life across the city
- The outreach effort comes just ahead of the final policy address of leader Carrie Lam’s current term
Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong stressed the need to solve the city’s housing problems on Thursday as he kicked off a week-long community outreach drive by his office to “listen directly to the grass roots” on the eve of the country’s National Day.
Luo Huining, director of Beijing’s liaison office in the city, visited at least five places on the first day of the effort, meeting a range of people such as young tech entrepreneurs, elderly residents seeking free medical help, fishermen plying their boats and “cage home” tenants in Mong Kok to see their living conditions.
According to a report posted on Thursday night on its website, the office said it would send officials to different communities in the coming week, building on the first day’s efforts.
Luo said his “heart sank” after seeing the conditions of the “cage home” where 11 people had less than 20 sq ft of space each. The need to ramp up efforts to ease the housing shortage was not only a concern of Beijing but also an expectation of the public, he said.
While the problem involved specific issues such as land, planning and investment, the obstacles could be resolved step by step as long as the development was “people-oriented”, Luo suggested.
“We know that the [local] government is actively planning, and we hope that the whole society will work together,” he said.
