HKs Lam delays speech until Beijing visit

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has postponed her annual policy address in order to go to Beijing for talks on how the central government can help with the financial hubs economic recovery. Lam said she would go to Beijing this month and aimed to hold her policy address, which was scheduled for Wednesday, by the end of November. She said she would discuss wide-ranging measures with the central government, including some related to the Greater Bay area - a region that includes Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Chinas Guangdong province - the finance sector and tech innovation, without giving details. "It is not a matter of waiting for directions," Lam told a news conference on Monday when asked about the postponement. "It is a matter of responding to a positive indication from the central government that they want to take into account the chief executives recommendations, that they really want to facilitate those policy measures so that Hong Kong people have more confidence that the economy will bounce back. "The central governments role in the semi-autonomous former British colony has been in the spotlight, in particular with the imposition in June of a security law after months of pro-democracy protests - the most intense in decades - last year. The protests and later the novel coronavirus have battered the citys economy. Lam said the central government had asked her to make the trip to Beijing. Last year, Lam delivered her policy speech on video after being heckled by pro-democracy MPs.