'Policy Address should identify ways to boost economy'
Dishing out allowances for newborn babies, further developing the local IT sector, and more integration with the mainland are among some of the ideas proposed to Chief Executive John Lee, as he launches a series of consultation sessions ahead of his Policy Address slated for October.  Lee met with 21 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the government headquarters on Tuesday.  Local NPC deputy Kennedy Wong said he raised concerns about Hong Kong's economic growth. “Not just in GDP, but whether or not we can establish some new areas of growth. Hong Kong has been very much dependent on our financial market and our property sector. Of course, our government is pouring a lot of money into R&D research, various kinds of technology and so on. I would very much hope to see further elaborations of these in the upcoming policy agendas,” he said. CPPCC delegate Irons Sze, meanwhile, called for more integration with the mainland. “The Greater Bay Area is a good opportunity for all the young people or the business people in Hong Kong to develop their business to further enlarge their market,” he said. Another NPC representative, Nick Chan, raised concerns about the SAR's dwindling birthrate, adding that more should be done to encourage people to have babies.  “We should consider giving each family $200,000 to welcome their child to the world to support them,” he said.  “People often worry about the education of their child. I suggested that we should provide education vouchers for people, if they want to [enroll] their children into private kindergartens and nurseries.”