New growth engines proposed in Hong Kong budget but geopolitics could derail plan, analysts say

Think tank founder and former Executive Councillor Franklin Lam Fan-keung said that the new Hong Kong government budget, unveiled on February 22, 2023, “drew on all the tools and invented more in the toolbox” to explore new growth engines for the city’s Covid-battered economy. But Vera Yuen Wing-han, a University of Hong Kong (HKU) lecturer in economics, warned of geopolitical risks that could derail the plan. She also noted that the city still has a long way to catch up, as one of the very few advanced economies that have yet to resume pre-pandemic levels of economic growth.