Hong Kong refrained from setting overly rigid economic indicators in its first five-year plan to avoid fuelling concerns that it was moving towards a planned economy, according to the city’s constitutional affairs minister.

The current priority should be hitting targets instead of dwelling on accountability mechanisms for potential shortcomings, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa said.

Tse also emphasised the government’s efforts to explore administrative measures to protect same-sex couples’ rights after lawmakers vetoed a bill last year meant to recognise their partnership in line with a court ruling, although she offered no timeline.

Last month, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan, outlining initiatives to speed up the Northern Metropolis megaproject and cement the city’s strengths in finance, aviation, maritime services, trade and technology to align with the nation’s development strategy.

The “action agenda” for long-term development set out 22 major targets covering economic and innovation development, livelihood and environmental protection.

Only five are binding targets, while the remaining 17 are anticipatory goals, such as annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth “within a reasonable range” and achieving “steady growth” in imports and exports.

Amid doubts over the blueprint’s lack of binding goals and the vagueness of key economic indicators, Tse stressed that overly rigid indicators could jeopardise Hong Kong’s image as a free-market economy.

“What is the most difficult part of setting quantified indicators? If they are too rigid, some people will say Hong Kong is running a planned economy,” said Tse, who spearheaded the document’s coordination and drafting.

“However, if you do not set indicators, some people will criticise you for lacking commitment. Or if you set anticipatory goals, people might ask whether there is no need for accountability if you fail to meet the targets.”She added that long-term planning and development inevitably involved uncertainties, making it almost impossible to predict free-market economic figures with precision. She cited GDP growth sensitivity to global trade and tourism’s vulnerability to unforeseen shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

She reaffirmed the administration’s determination to meet the goals listed in the blueprint, but stopped short of detailing how officials would be held accountable if targets were missed. Instead, she said the priority should be on closing gaps when targets fall short.

“The government hopes to achieve any quantified indicator. If risks arise or we identify a gap during assessment, we should catch up and do better,” Tse said.

“We should not, right after setting an indicator, immediately start thinking about what happens if we fail to meet it.”Under the blueprint’s implementation mechanism, which included dynamic monitoring, midterm assessment and final reporting, the administration would continuously review progress, policy priorities and resource adequacy rather than conducting only annual reviews, Tse said.

Although the government previously rejected calls to adopt mainland Chinese practices of conducting third-party reviews by think tanks and research institutes, Tse said public and professional groups’ feedback and criticism, lawmakers’ concerns and the central government’s oversight already formed a robust accountability system.

“Many residents, professional groups and think tanks have been closely monitoring the five-year plan. Every day, numerous articles published in various newspapers discuss what should be done and whether enough has been achieved,” Tse said.

“In fact, these already amount to third-party assessments. They come uninvited, but we are very grateful … and many of them reflect the concerns of different industries.”She also sought to assure that even though the document would not be revised, policy execution would remain agile and responsive to market dynamics.

“The market will tell us how to adjust. Hong Kong has always been entirely market-led, but the government needs to provide support,” she added.

When asked why the five-year blueprint did not address political reform, Tse said a stable environment under the current system was key to the economy, development and people’s livelihoods.

But she noted that the document only charted a course for the next five years, making it difficult to predict outcomes in the long run as the broader environment could change.

Following the overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system in 2021 to ensure that only “patriots” can hold power, Beijing published a white paper saying that the move fostered favourable conditions for universal suffrage of the chief executive and the Legco, as outlined in the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.

Tse, a retired civil servant, was appointed the constitutional and mainland affairs chief in March, filling the vacancy left by Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, who stepped down in January due to poor health.

With only about 10 months remaining in the current government term, Tse declined to divulge whether she intended to stay on to oversee implementation of the five-year plan, describing the question as an issue “outside her radar”. “I have a lot on my plate; this is not an issue I need to be concerned with at the moment,” she said.

“The five-year plan’s continuity does not depend on any individual; the planning has been written down.”Turning to the debate over same-sex couples’ rights in the city, Tse said her bureau had been exploring administrative measures after the veto of the Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill last September and would announce details once they were finalised.

But she added that her bureau already faced a heavy workload, including organising three major elections by the end of next year.

The bill was the government’s answer to a 2023 ruling by the Court of Final Appeal, which gave authorities two years to draw up laws to set out “core rights” for same-sex couples. Tse dismissed claims that the delay had undermined the rule of law.

“The government has made efforts. We submitted the bill to the legislature, but it was voted down … So you cannot say the government did not try or that it placed a low priority on the matter. We did make the effort,” Tse said.

“[The bill] could not get through. That is the reality. Having accepted this reality, we are now considering ways forward. Do you think it is easy?”

She sidestepped a question of whether the government could resolve the issue before her term ended in July next year, saying: “I am confident that I will accomplish many things during my term, because this is my responsibility.”