Aiming higher

To attract young people, Cheung, from the Education University of Hong Kong, suggested that the city's low-skilled industries should transform themselves to become more value-added and provide increased professional services to enhance their appeal.

For example, the tourism industry should become qualitative-oriented instead of quantitative-oriented, Cheung said.

Before the pandemic, tourists crowded Hong Kong's restaurants and public facilities, including transportation services, affecting residents' daily lives, Cheung said.

The city was known as a shopping paradise, but now that people have become accustomed to shopping online, it needs to adapt to this situation, Cheung said.

"A return to normalcy is not a return to the past," he added.

Cheung feels that as the post-pandemic world differs from the pre-pandemic one, Hong Kong should change to meet new demands.

In February, the government launched the Hello Hong Kong campaign — pledging to distribute 500,000 free air tickets to travelers worldwide to visit the city.

Cheung said these tickets can draw visitors to Hong Kong, but in the long run, a city's attraction should be its charm, spirit and soft power, rather than free tickets.

Ceajer Chan Ka-keung, the SAR's former secretary for financial services and the treasury, agreed that the city should first revive its tourism and aviation industries.

As Hong Kong would not be immune from the slow recovery of the global economy, with the support of the nation, it should strengthen its supervision over financial markets to reduce uncertainty, said Chan, who is adjunct professor and senior adviser to the dean at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Business School.

Li Chen, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Centre for China Studies, suggested that the city cultivate new economic growth areas to increase its resilience to risks. The pandemic highlighted a character in Hong Kong's economy — the city's high degree of interconnection with and dependence on the outside world, Li said.

Hong Kong has a high degree of openness, but its economy is susceptible to crisis, particularly during a pandemic, when external links are cut, Li added.

He said the city should use the opportunities arising from China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to transform itself into a global innovation and technology hub.

Specifically, Hong Kong can nurture more technology companies in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence, semiconductor electronics, and financial technology. Such companies not only have high added value, they can also drive development of upstream and downstream complementary industries, thus bringing new economic opportunities to the city, Li added.