At the end of March, Bryan once again convened a special meeting of the Executive Council, with all unofficial members present.
At the meeting, Kesos once again explained some policies, one of which was the issue of the right to issue Hong Kong currency notes that the Tung Wah Association has always been concerned about.
In addition, in order to promote the economic development of Xiangjiang, an extremely large infrastructure plan has been launched, including urban roads, subway lines, and a new airport.
He also once again mentioned that he would build Xiangjiang into a higher education center in Asia and even internationally, and initially complete the plan for thirty universities.
In terms of attracting talents to settle down, it still firmly implements its policy. The annual population growth plan of 200,000 is changed to 300,000. One of the reasons is that the number of international students in Hong Kong has increased significantly. In order to take care of the naturalization of the international students, it must also take care of the naturalization of the international students.
Elites who come to Xiangjiang, therefore, an additional 100,000 places are added every year.
The affordable housing project for villagers in squatter areas will also be accelerated, striving to completely solve this historical problem within ten years. At the same time, we will severely crack down on those who build houses on illegal land to completely prevent the squatter problem from continuing to occur.
The official members had not yet spoken, but the unofficial members here immediately expressed their views on several major issues.
Li Jianhui, as the chief unofficial member, was the first to say: "There used to be three banks that had the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes, but after Hang Seng was acquired by HSBC, only Standard Chartered and HSBC have been the ones.
Hong Kong is a city of six million citizens. For the benefit of all citizens, the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes should not and cannot be monopolized by two British banks.
Currently, as the largest Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong, Xinjian Bank is fully capable of shouldering this important task and becoming the third bank with the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes, in order to ensure the stability of the Hong Kong dollar and the interests of more than six million citizens.
As for the infrastructure projects mentioned by Mr. Kesos, I firmly support them. I believe that after these projects are put into use, our citizens in Xiangjiang will travel more conveniently and our economic development will reach a higher level.
However, I hope that the government can fully consider its own financial problems. Each project should have a timetable and be promoted according to priority to avoid a fiscal bankruptcy crisis.
In terms of higher education, I have always been supportive. Through joint ventures or sole proprietorships, my subsidiary Xinjian Education Group has successively established Xiangjiang Film and Television University, Xiangjiang Aviation College, Xinjian University, Xiangjiang University of Finance and Economics, Xiangjiang College of Architectural Engineering, and Xiangjiang University of Science and Technology.
The University of Electronic Information Engineering and Xiangjiang Medical University can also be considered as contributions to Xiangjiang’s education.
But I think that if we want to establish Hong Kong as a higher education center in Asia and even the world, it is not enough to have a large number of higher education universities. What is more important for us now is to improve the quality of higher education institutions rather than pursue quantity.
As for increasing the number of immigrants and the permanent population, I think not only cannot the number be increased, but should be reduced. The area of Xiangjiang is so large, and excessive population will not only fail to promote stable development, but will cause huge conflicts."
Li Jianhui was not the only one to speak today. On several issues, all parties had completely different views. Regarding the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes, Shen Bi clearly expressed his opposition, while on other issues, he fully expressed his support.
Bao Yukang, Li Shaoji, Zheng Yutong, Li Chaoren and others also have different opinions. Regarding the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes, because they know that their own financial banks cannot compare with banks such as Xin Jian, East Asia, Dao Heng, K. Wah, and Wing On, they therefore
Neither support nor oppose.
They also expressed support for infrastructure construction, especially urban roads and subway lines, which is beneficial to all parties.
Regarding institutions of higher learning, immigration, and the increase in the resident population, their attitudes are very different from Li Jianhui's. Several parties are quite supportive of the policies proposed by the Bryan administration.
Zheng Yutong even said that the two groups, Far East Film and Television Media and Sun Hung Film and Television Media, plan to join a number of film companies to jointly establish the Far East Film and Television Media University. If the government can approve it, this will be the 25th university in Hong Kong.
Listening to everyone's speeches, Brian, Xos and others were very happy. Their work in the past few years has not been in vain. As long as these Chinese representatives have differences, they can easily handle many things.
Brian said: "As the film and television media center in Asia, Xiangjiang has experienced rapid development in the film and television media industry in recent years, and the demand for talents is also increasing day by day.
Although there are already Xiangjiang Film and Television University and Xiangjiang Drama Academy, due to some reasons, it is difficult for excellent talents to flow out to the outside world, so that some of our companies are trapped in the dilemma of talent shortage.
Our government is very supportive of Mr. Zheng’s mention of establishing the Far Eastern University of Film, Television and Media. As long as you submit your application to the Education Department, it will be approved on the same day.
Moreover, our government will do its best to ensure that the degree of Far Eastern University of Film and Television is recognized by many countries within the Commonwealth, so that it can be on the same platform as other universities in Hong Kong to avoid affecting the recruitment of students."
Regarding the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes, Financial Secretary Ross said that a local financial conference in Hong Kong will be held in the near future, at which time a bank will be selected based on the bank's comprehensive strength as the third bank with the right to issue Hong Kong dollar notes.
Kesos also responded to urban transportation infrastructure, planning for colleges and universities, immigration, affordable housing for villagers in squatter areas, etc.
In terms of transportation, priority will be given to the construction of a line from Tsuen Wan to Tian Shui New Urban Area.
On the road, priority will be given to the construction of the Shatin Crossing Tai Po to Fenshui New Urban Project, mainly to widen the road to meet the growing traffic volume.
The other is a new airport project. The initial plan is to place it on an outlying island. Part of it is the coastal area of the island, and the other part is based on land reclamation, especially the airport runway. The initial planned investment is HK$70 billion.
Hearing this number, even Li Jianhui, who has huge wealth, took a breath of cold air.
However, Kesos was not done yet and continued to announce that the government would establish the Heung Kong Academy of Fine Arts and the Heung Kong Conservatory of Music in Yuen Long and North District respectively to help the better development of the film, television and recording industry in Hong Kong.
At the same time, he also stated that Baptist College and Lingnan College will also actively improve their teaching quality. Not surprisingly, these two institutions will become the 28th and 29th higher education institutions in Hong Kong.
Among them, Baptist College is a church college and is a private institution, while Lingnan College is a public institution.
I don’t know if they had already discussed it. After Kesos’ introduction, Kesos and Shihuaiya also said that Swire, Jardine Matheson, China Power and Hang Seng Bank planned to jointly invest in the establishment of Hang Seng University.
In this way, the government's plan for the layout of thirty colleges and universities can be said to have been basically completed. In two years' time, the thirty colleges and universities will recruit students from outside, forming a situation of eleven public colleges and universities and sixteen nine private colleges and universities.
Xiangjiang originally had less land and more people, but now so many universities need enough land for their development, this will inevitably lead to an even greater shortage of construction land and industrial land in Xiangjiang.
Moreover, the annual enrollment of 30 colleges and universities is likely to be close to 200,000. This is also a huge challenge and is bound to further increase the number of international students.
Although many people present understood that the implementation of these policies by the Bryan administration would cause a series of problems, some people pretended to be confused for the sake of their own interests. Instead of speaking out against it, they actively participated and expressed support.