Thinking About 2007 Workshop

The "Thinking about 2007" workshop co-organized by the Foundation and the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute and very efficiently and generously hosted by the City University of Hong Kong took place on 21^st October 2000.

Over eighty participants from various University departments, political parties and public affairs pressure groups took part in the day-long seminar. A total of five papers were presented, four by overseas academics and one by a local academic. Full details of the programme can be found here on the Foundation’s web site.

The Focus and Discussion Group segments, during which vigorous exchanges of views took place, were a very successful element of the workshop and fully justified the incorporation of this innovation into the programme. These Group discussions provided some useful indicators of the directions further discussion might take.

The primary purpose of the workshop was to set the scene for future detailed discussion on the constitutionally related issues facing Hong Kong by presenting a broad-brush overview of these, including examples of how some of them had been addressed in other jurisdictions. This was admirably achieved by the five presentations, which focussed on setting out general principles and outlining consequences that would result from different courses of action. The presentations refrained from recommending solutions for the Hong Kong situation, but rather acted as effective guidelines and stimulus for the participants in their Group discussions.

A "Green Paper" is now under production and this will identify key issues that require detailed research and evaluation and which will form the basis of further discussion. The eventual outcome of this next stage should be the development of policy options on these issues which can be put forward for broad public discussion. The "Green Paper", including the five presentations and Focus and Discussion Group notes will be posted here on the Foundation’s web site.