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Why does Hong Kong need a 5-year plan – and will it crimp its free-market economy?

As the government completes a public consultation exercise to craft the city’s own five-year plan to align with national development, the first of this five-part…

By Samantha Johnson / August 12, 2026

As the government completes a public consultation exercise to craft the city’s own five-year plan to align with national development, the first of this five-part series looks at key questions, starting with the need for such a blueprint.

Economist Heiwai Tang has a line he likes to use on free-market purists: “The market is almost always right, but it’s not always right.”

While Hong Kong has long been ranked the world’s freest economy, Tang, an associate dean at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) Business School, said the government’s lack of overarching, long-term planning had contributed to a housing shortage, widening inequality and limited upward mobility, among other social problems.

“We should not be the last defender of laissez-faire, which has created a lot of prosperity for many people but has also created a lot of long-term structural problems that cannot easily be overcome by market forces,” he said.

All that may change soon if the government plays its hand well.

By the end of September, Hong Kong will make a pivot in governance by rolling out its first-ever five-year plan to set the direction for the city’s economic and social development that is aligned with national strategy.

This is uncharted territory for Hong Kong. From the 1970s under British colonial rule to the post-handover period, the city government, characterised by its laissez-faire policy, relied on annual policy addresses and budgets for overall planning.

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