The Hksar Knowledge-Based Economy: Promotion and Inclusion

This dissertation, "The HKSAR Knowledge-based Economy: Promotion and Inclusion" by Man-wing, Edwin, Lam, 林文榮, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract In this thesis, I am going to study an existing government policy which was first announced by the then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in his 1998 Policy Speech under the title "From Adversity to Opportunity." A theme of the then Chief Executive's policy addresses was the need for life-long learning for Hong Kong people in order for them to stay competitive in the knowledge-based economies of the future. The policy was reiterated and reinforced in his final Policy Speech in 2005. The policy was again repeated and emphasised by Mr. Tsang Yam-kuen in his 2005 Policy Address which focused on upgrading the quality of the local workforce to effectively cope with competition brought by globalization. The policy was to transform Hong Kong into a knowledge-based economy by subsidizing adults to pursue continuing education and training courses. I am going to examine the way the services were delivered and to see if such delivery would include those citizens who required the training to upgrade their knowledge and whether the delivery of the policy adequately meets its objectives. The concepts and ideas of policy analysis are applied to diagnose, analyse and suggest solutions to the policy. In Chapter 1, I intend to set the scene. One of the Government roles in response to the needs of the society is to make significant investments in education. The goal is to help the Hong Kong workforce, through continuous learning, to strengthen themselves in preparation for the knowledge-based economy. The Page 6 objective of the research is to see whether the goal is achieved effectively. As this is a very wide topic, the research will concentrate on five selected funds, namely the Employees Retraining Fund, the Innovation and Technology Fund, the Small and Medium Enterprises Training Fund, the Continuing Education Fund and the Skills Upgrading Fund. The Library of the University of Hong Kong and the websites of these funds will be the main resources for this research. Most of the information will be extracted from these websites for analysis. Previous researches and interviews will be further sources of information. In Chapter 2, theories and literature reviews are conducted. The meaning of "Knowledge-based economy" is defined in accordance with a World Bank article on the same subject. The New Growth Theory and Human Capital Theory will extend and expand the understanding of the definition. The new growth theory contends that an economy continues to grow due to the continuous accumulation of knowledge. The Human Capital Theory argues that the main thrust in the modern economy growth is the growth of human capital. The centralisation and decentralisation theories are compared from the perspective of delivering public services. The funds are generally welcomed as they address community needs. However, there are negative opinions criticizing the eligibility criteria. I will look into the problem from the perspective of welfare economic, in particular the supply-side policy. An overview of the concept and definition of institutionalism is utilized. Page 7 Institutionalists emphasize a rules-in-use, as opposed to rules-in-form, making allowances for internalisation by the agents of the rules, norms, and expectations of behaviour. In Chapter 3, I will look deeper into the nature of these funds. These five selected funds by their nature represent distributive policy in the sense