The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s inaugural five-year plan could be unveiled as early as the end of the third quarter, months ahead of the year-end target previously estimated, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said.

In a recent interview with local media, Lee said that “the sooner the plan can be released, the better”, following his earlier announcement that the government will kick off a two-month public consultation on the plan next Monday.

Serving as a blueprint for the city’s future development, the plan is set to be implemented in 2026, the final year of Lee’s current chief executive term, and to run into the five-year tenure of the city’s next administration.

Hong Kong officials have said that the plan is aimed at further aligning the city’s growth over the next five years with the broader objectives charted in the national 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the country’s socioeconomic road map.

On the upcoming local five-year plan, Lee said that “its drafting progress had been better than anticipated,” which he credited to a “hardworking” administration, “strong” social cooperation, and the city’s lawmakers, who — under a dedicated joint research and consultation mechanism — had “made good preparation”.

In late May, the SAR’s lawmakers submitted to Lee a consolidated report of their findings and policy suggestions, after hearing the views of over 4,000 people from across different industrial sectors and the wider community.

Lee said that the authorities had conducted “thorough research” into how Chinese mainland cities craft their local five-year plans.

They looked at cities including those in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and others further afield, including Shanghai — the “financial hub and open city” which Lee described as the “most comparable” to Hong Kong.

Macao, which has already completed two local five-year plans — its first in 2016 — was also used as a reference, he added.

Reflecting on the past four years in office, Lee reaffirmed that his administrative “motive” and “mission” has remained unchanged: to work pragmatically, with performance assessed against multiple indicators and, crucially, residents’ “genuine sense of gain”.

Lee said his administration had set around 100 performance indicators each year, the vast majority of which have been successfully met.

One notable achievement of his administration — about which Lee said he felt “most satisfied” — has been the sustained increase in public housing supply.

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Official data shows that as of March, the city’s average waiting time for public rental housing had fallen to an eight-year low of 4.7 years — down 23 percent from the peak of 6.1 years before Lee assumed office.

With one year left in his current term, Lee said there is still enough time for him to roll out multiple new welfare policies and tackle many development challenges.

Among other achievements under his administration, Lee pointed to the early success of the GoGlobal Task Force, an initiative he first proposed in his 2025 Policy Address to champion Hong Kong as a launchpad for mainland enterprises seeking to expand businesses globally.

A survey by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in early 2026 found that 83 percent of mainland firms polled indicated that they would opt for Hong Kong’s professional services to support their overseas expansion — a jump from 62 percent in a comparable survey in 2023.

Lee added that in the few cases where his administration has fallen short of meeting targets, his government proactively reviews issues and adjusts strategies accordingly to ensure that policies meet the public’s needs and the city’s unfolding development realities.

A chief executive must have a “sense of urgency”, he said. While Hong Kong’s growth momentum is currently “stable and improving”, new challenges are constantly emerging, he said, referring to privacy risks from artificial intelligence development, pressures from industrial transformation and global geopolitical shifts.

The government will stay vigilant and make early deployments to build a lasting safety net for Hong Kong’s long-term development, he added.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com