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Former Hong Kong leader CY Leung ups pressure on Chief Executive Carrie Lam over housing, city’s culture
- Leung calls for new bureau to coordinate city’s arts and culture policies in interview with pro-Beijing media outlet
- Former leader also accuses civil servants of hampering government’s ability to get things done
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Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has piled the pressure on the city’s current chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, urging her administration to speed up tackling the housing shortage, and revive his idea of creating a new bureau to coordinate the city’s arts and culture policies.
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“We cannot wait until the next administration to re-plan the development of the cultural and creative industry …. If we do well with this cultural bureau, we can build a new platform for young people interested in a career in arts and culture,” he said, referring to a government restructuring plan which was derailed by opposition lawmakers in 2012.
He also accused officials of a lack of urgency in increasing land and housing supply. He said the government’s efficiency of implementing projects was undermined by the lack of a “do or die” attitude among civil servants.
Leung, now a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, made his remarks in a wide-ranging interview with Dot Dot News, a pro-Beijing online media outlet, on Monday.
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The former chief executive has become increasingly vocal about the current government’s policies, and last week he attempted to revive a controversial housing idea that was dismissed by the current government, again pushing for public flats to be built on the fringes of a protected country park.
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