Hong Kong’s first five-year plan marks an unprecedented milestone not only for its economic and social development, but also for how it governs itself. The plan, which drew on 16,000 public submissions – roughly 80 per cent from ordinary citizens – is a testament to the government’s commitment to long-term development, which shows an unusual convergence of public consensus and political will.

For a city long accustomed to letting the market hold the reins, crafting a road map clear in aims, precise in methods and univocal in stance – and placing itself as the primary agent responsible for its execution – is an act of political self-reinvention. It betokens a willingness to embrace the role of direction setter and reform executor, to be held accountable for outcomes five years down the road rather than merely navigate short-term challenges at hand.

For a city long accustomed to letting the market hold the reins, crafting a road map clear in aims, precise in methods and univocal in stance – and placing itself as the primary agent responsible for its execution – is an act of political self-reinvention. It betokens a willingness to embrace the role of direction setter and reform executor, to be held accountable for outcomes five years down the road rather than merely navigate short-term challenges at hand.

Hong Kong’s reorientation away from a market-led approach indicates not only an upgrade of policy tools, but also a recalibration of governance philosophy.

This road map attaches great importance to higher education. The integrated development of education, technology and talent is at the core of the strategy and seen as the pivotal powerhouse of Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity. This is especially evident in its vision for the Northern Metropolis – the 30,000-hectare redevelopment project that anchors the blueprint.

Designed to develop another economic centre of the city closer to Shenzhen, the Northern Metropolis covers about one third of Hong Kong’s total area. It is, in effect, a second city being built from scratch – planned to house 2.5 million residents and create about 650,000 jobs, with land earmarked for advanced manufacturing, logistics, professional services and, most crucially, education. A university town spanning roughly 1,000 hectares incorporating industrial, residential and recreational space is expected to sit at the heart of the Northern Metropolis. By anchoring three separate campuses in San Tin, Hung Shui Kiu and Ta Kwu Ling, it will draw researchers, students, entrepreneurs and investors into the district to advance industry-academia-research integration and, ultimately, unleash the area’s economic potential.

If the Northern Metropolis serves as the plan’s core engine, the university town is its powerhouse – ready to ignite the spark for economic rejuvenation, transforming Hong Kong’s higher education along the way.

It starts by redrawing where universities sit and how they connect. The three university towns each include a campus area, a technology area, an industry area and a living community, developed under the “one town, five elements” framework. This is not just dividing land by function; it is designing institutions.

It puts laboratories, start-up incubators, production lines and residential communities into one geographic unit. By forcing industry, academia and research into the same physical space, it uses geography to break institutional inertia. That works far better than simply telling institutions to collaborate more. It then removes the regulatory rigidities that have long stifled innovation. One of the plan’s most valuable contributions is that it confronts the lack of institutional flexibility that hampers technology transfer.

For example, it proposes to accelerate the release and development of space using diverse means: adopting “large-scale land disposal” and “pay for what you build” schemes, allowing in-situ land exchange, introducing a dual-track system of direct land grant and tender to speed up land transfer, and establishing an industrial park company to enhance management efficiency. The innovative and bold approach adopted by the Hong Kong government showcases its commitment to pushing forward reform for high-quality development.

Most crucially, it offers a chance to re-examine the very logic and model of Hong Kong’s higher education development. The plan calls for deepening industry-academia-research integration, which requires the higher education sector to re-evaluate whether its funding allocation, promotion criteria, curriculum design and talent cultivation have offered sufficient incentives and created a friendly environment for industry collaboration and start-up incubation.

Most crucially, it offers a chance to re-examine the very logic and model of Hong Kong’s higher education development. The plan calls for deepening industry-academia-research integration, which requires the higher education sector to re-evaluate whether its funding allocation, promotion criteria, curriculum design and talent cultivation have offered sufficient incentives and created a friendly environment for industry collaboration and start-up incubation.

It is widely acknowledged that Hong Kong’s universities excel at training researchers and professionals for finance and services, but are far less effective in producing the engineers, designers and technological specialists who can move an idea from a laboratory bench to a production line.

The university town, by embedding campuses within industrial clusters and requiring universities to align their academic strengths with the industries being built around them, tilts the balance. It gives institutions a reason to invest in basic research and applied sciences, not because rankings reward it, but because the ecosystem depends on it.

It also changes what students are trained for – not merely to fill the best-paid jobs in finance and law, but to build the industries on which Hong Kong’s next chapter will rest. In this sense, the plan does more than offer a new direction; it adjusts how the city’s universities have understood their mission.

With the launch of the plan, demanding tasks face these universities. It asks them to change habits built over decades and stand up to the resistance from those who benefit from the status quo.

Yet Hong Kong’s universities have shown, time and again, that they are capable of reinvention. They have all the strengths needed – academic depth, international networks, institutional resilience and the commitment to act. If they are ready to rise to it, they will not merely serve the Northern Metropolis – they will define what Hong Kong becomes next.