Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying visited the North District on Sunday in an unannounced town hall meeting. It was second unannounced local tour in the space of seven days.
On Sunday morning, Leung first attended a charity walking event near Tai Tam Country Park. He reportedly did not respond to questions about rumours that Chief Secretary Carrie Lam had expressed on Saturday her wish to retire.
He then went to the North District to meet with 5o local leaders. The event was only known to the public when he posted photos hours later on Facebook. The press were not notified.
In his social media post, Leung said that he told the local leaders of the importance of solving the housing issue, and that he spoke of measures to increase supply and suppress demand from non-Hong Kong residents. He also spoke about issues of re-industrialisation and new agricultural policies.
Among those in attendance was Edward Lau Kwok-fan, a pro-Beijing DAB party’s lawmaker and district councillor. He said that local leaders told him about problems young people faced.
“Local leaders have knowledge of all sorts of local problems, they also have suggestions,” Leung wrote.
Last Sunday, Leung went on an unannounced local tour to Tsuen Wan, where he also met with local leaders at a town hall setting. Among them was pro-Beijing DAB party lawmaker and district councillor Ben Chan Han-pan.
When Leung was elected as Chief Executive in March 2012, he pledged that he would continue to “bring a chair, a notebook and a pen into the masses” to listen to them. Leung has rarely done so since last year, after the government’s political reform package was rejected.
The Chief Executive election is set to take place on March 26 next year. Leung’s term ends on June 30, 2017 but he has yet to officially announce whether he will seek re-election.
Meanwhile, in a rare interview with state news agency Xinhua published on Sunday, Leung said he would continue his work on the livelihood issues he mentioned in his 2012 platform.
“Basically, all [items] in the platform have been realised. There are two or three long term problems… we have to hurry up and implement them,” he said.
When Leung was asked what more he had to say to the central government and Hong Kong society as his term concludes, he said: “I want to express my gratitude to the central government… mainland compatriots and Hong Kong residents for their cooperation and support of my work in the past four years. It is not easy for Hong Kong to tackle long term problems, but we will rise to the challenges and persevere.”
“My feeling after four years is clear – that if we keep going, we will make some definite progress. I hope people have confidence in Hong Kong and themselves, we carry on and complete the work.”
