The Professional Commons is an independent, membership-based,

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

established in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

on 25 March 2007. It is open to all professionals who share the same values.

Mission

The Professional Commons aims at improving the quality of public governance and empowering the community in the policy-making process by harnessing the soft power of responsible professionalism. The Professional Commons' missions are: * To achieve equal and

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

; * To monitor government through professional analysis; * To engage with the community in developing public policies; * To express professional views in the pursuit of public interest; and * To uphold core values of professional independence, freedom and integrity. The Professional Commons vow to work to promote matters of significant public interest rather than those of sectoral or trade interests.

History

During the Chief Executive election in March 2007, over 100

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Ho ...

(EC) members from various professional sectors joined hands to advocate a faster pace for democracy. Many of these EC members, together with like-minded professionals, decided afterwards to build on this foundation as an agent for democratisation and good governance. In the 2012 LegCo election, three Professional Commons members were elected to the legislature including

Charles Mok Charles Peter Mok, JP (born 1964 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong-based Internet entrepreneur and IT advocate who formerly represents the Information Technology functional constituency on the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Mok founded HKNet in ...

in the

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

functional constituency (FC), Kenneth Leung in the

Accountancy Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "langua ...

FC, and Dennis Kwok, who ran as a

Civic Party The Civic Party (CP) is a pro-democracy liberal political party in Hong Kong. It is currently chaired by barrister Alan Leong. The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group, which was derived from the ...

candidate, in the Legal FC.

Structure

It adopts a network-based governance model and organisational matters are handled by three committees elected from among the members: the Strategy Committee, Management Committee and Communications Committee.The Professional Commons

Issue task group

Members may at any time, subject to the approval of the Strategy Committee, set up an issue task group provided at least 4 members from at least 3 professional sectors have expressed interest to play an active role. All task groups are open to all members. A convenor and a co-convenor, who shall serve as the link with the Strategy Committee, shall be elected from among the members of the relevant task groups.

Leadership

Chairmen

* Kenneth Leung * Stanley Ng * Paul Zimmerman

Performance in elections

Legislative council elections

References

{{Hong Kong political parties 2007 establishments in Hong Kong Liberal parties in Hong Kong Non-profit organisations based in Hong Kong Political and economic think tanks based in Hong Kong Pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong) Think tanks established in 2007