Policy Address () is the annual address by the

Chief Executive of Hong Kong The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong. The position was created to replace the office of governor of ...

(

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

prior to the

handover In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...

). The practice of giving annual policy address is mandated under Article 64 of the Basic Law, requiring the government to "present regular policy addresses to the

Council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

". The policy address was first introduced during the colonial period by

Sir

Murray MacLehose Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, (; 16 October 1917 – 27 May 2000), was a British politician, diplomat and the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, from 1971 to 1982. He was the longest-serving governor of the colony, with four ...

in 1972 as "Address by His Excellency the Governor". It was modelled after the Queen's Speech in the United Kingdom and aimed to strengthen the communications with Hong Kong residents after the

Hong Kong 1967 Leftist riots The 1967 Hong Kong riots were large-scale anti-government riots that occurred in Hong Kong during British colonial rule. Beginning as a minor labour dispute, the demonstrations eventually escalated into protests against the British colonial g ...

. It used to be addressed in October, on the opening of the Legislative Council. In 2002, former Chief Executive

Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chin ...

changed it unilaterally to January, but it was returned to October by his successor,

Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012. Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...

. After

Leung Chun-ying Leung Chun-ying (; born 12 August 1954), also known as CY Leung, is a Hong Kong politician and chartered surveyor, who has served as vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since Ma ...

succeeded Tsang in 2012, he changed the policy address back to January. It was again changed back to October after

Carrie Lam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor ( Cheng; ; born 13 May 1957) is a retired Hong Kong politician who served as the 4th Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2022. She served as Chief Secretary for Administration between 2012 and 2017 and Secr ...

became Chief Executive in 2017. Two weeks after the address, the chairman of the House Committee of the Legislative Council moves a Motion of Thanks, similar to Address in Reply motions in other legislatures, and members of the Council debate the Policy Address. Most people see the policy address as useful and a way of predicting how the Chief Executive will operate.

List of policy addresses

There were no titles for the Policy Addresses before 1992.

References

External links

Official website

Corpus of Political Speeches
: Free access to political speeches by American and Chinese politicians, developed by Hong Kong Baptist University Library Politics of Hong Kong {{HongKong-gov-stub

List of policy addresses

See also

References

External links