【Press Release | For Immediate Release】

18 August 2026

Hong Kong Five-Year Plan and 2026 Policy Address Recommendations and Research on Establishing a Career Judge System

(Hong Kong, 18 August 2026) POD Research Institute today released its recommendations for Hong Kong’s Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address, and published the research report Developing a Hong Kong-Compatible Career Judge System as a Judicial Talent Pipeline. The Institute considers that Hong Kong’s policy priorities over the next five years must move beyond the traditional approach of simply stacking projects. Instead, the focus should shift to long-term strategic layout and the building of governance systems, ensuring that policies are effectively implemented. The core objective is to deeply connect the strategic dividends of the country and Hong Kong’s unique institutional strengths with the daily well-being of citizens, so that policy benefits truly reach the community.

I. Hong Kong Five-Year Plan: Five Directional Recommendations

1. Enable workers to share more fully in economic gains

Make wage transmission a core objective of the Five-Year Plan. Link innovation and technology funding, industrial policy and public procurement to skills training, job restructuring, career progression and real wage growth, and publish annual performance indicators.

1. Establish a Hong Kong-compatible “career judge” system to address the long-term shortage of judges

Create a judicial talent development pipeline compatible with the common-law system. Through entry-level court positions, supervised practical experience and staged assessment, expand the future pool of judicial talent. Training and final appointment must be clearly separated.

1. Leverage Hong Kong’s role in the commercialisation of the national low-Earth-orbit economy

Focus on satellite connectivity, satellite data analytics and mature-stage consumer services. Drive downstream commercialisation through licensing coordination, data collaboration, public-procurement pilot projects and dedicated innovation funds.

1. Promote the local integration of overseas talent and raise the willingness to remain in Hong Kong

Strengthen the cross-departmental functions of the Hong Kong Talent Engage Office. Provide support in Cantonese, daily living adaptation, family settlement and cultural integration, and optimise stamp-duty arrangements for first-time home purchases by eligible talent.

1. Build a “multi-track digital-currency exchange and settlement hub”

Position Hong Kong as a regulated hub for the exchange and settlement of stablecoins, tokenised deposits and central-bank digital currencies, serving Renminbi internationalisation and Belt-and-Road trade settlement.

II. 2026 Policy Address: Five Policy Recommendations

1. Include “corporate rescue legislation” as a legislative item

Restart the legislative process on the basis of the 2020 draft. Introduce a time-limited moratorium, independent assessment, creditor voting, court supervision, employee protection and secured-creditor safeguards, so as to preserve enterprises that retain going-concern value.

1. Develop international boarding education into a new economic growth pillar of Hong Kong’s international education hub

Pilot regulated boarding campuses; improve student-visa, guardianship, accommodation and safeguarding standards; and establish a “Study in Hong Kong” pathway linking secondary school to university, internships and employment.

1. Reshape vocational and professional education and training to cultivate high-end technical talent

Elevate the positioning of vocational and professional education. Develop technical degrees, industry certifications and enterprise co-designed curricula, with priority support for robotics, AI operations and maintenance, cybersecurity, green building and biomedical testing.

1. Make student innovation a campus norm and build a pipeline for start-up industrialisation

Require publicly funded universities to establish professional start-up studios, micro student seed funds, on-campus investor presence and cross-faculty matching mechanisms. Measure outcomes by private investment, product revenue and market adoption.

1. Reorient overseas promotion and external representation from publicity to project development

Establish common missions and industry KPIs for overseas and Mainland promotion agencies. Proactively develop investment, corporate relocation, international students, R&D collaboration, family offices and financial transactions.

Mr Ray Poon, Research Director of POD Research Institute, stated: “The ten recommendations we put forward are mainly intended to align with Hong Kong’s long-term livelihood, rule of law and economic development needs, and to lay forward-looking policy foundations so that Hong Kong people can seize development opportunities. Talent integration will help raise local productivity and economic efficiency in the future; reorienting external representation functions will enable Hong Kong to tell its investment and business story more effectively and to create wealth-generating opportunities proactively.”

III. Judicial Talent Development: First Address the Structural Supply Problem

Over the past decade, first-instance caseloads in Hong Kong courts have remained persistently high, yet the number of substantively filled judicial posts has not increased and has in fact slightly declined. The vacancy rate still stands at 24.2%. Criminal waiting times are particularly severe: the District Court criminal waiting time reached 337 days, far exceeding the 100-day target. This indicates that the operational shortfall in the judiciary has evolved from short-term pressure into a structural problem. Compared with financial centres such as New York and Singapore, selected court units in Hong Kong handle higher volumes of filings, while the annual clearance rate of 82.5% is lower than that of the other two centres. Facing continued growth in judicial workload, the shortage of judges has become a critical issue that the judicial system must confront over the next five to ten years.

The existing model of selecting judges from experienced legal practitioners can no longer supply a sufficient number of judges. The Government must open additional channels to increase supply. Drawing on structured judicial training, court-based practical rotations, mentoring and staged assessment found in civil-law jurisdictions, it is recommended that a supplementary full-time judicial training pathway be established. Mr Martin Cheung, Principal Researcher of POD Research Institute, observed: “The adoption of a career-judge system in Hong Kong is not mutually exclusive with the well-established common-law system, provided that Hong Kong’s proud standards of the rule of law and judicial independence are not undermined. Strict adherence to common-law adjudication, merit-based selection and the Basic Law appointment framework will safeguard the objectivity and fairness of adjudication.”

To examine public attitudes towards a career-judge system, the Institute commissioned the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of The Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct a territory-wide telephone survey between 25 June and 16 July 2026, interviewing 1,002 Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above. Respondents were asked whether they agreed that Hong Kong should draw reference from practices in countries such as Germany and France by allowing outstanding law graduates, after assessment, to receive structured training and progressively develop into full-time judges. The mean score was 4.09 on a seven-point scale, slightly above the mid-point. Among those who gave a score, 41.6% awarded 5–7 points, higher than the 36.0% who awarded 1–3 points. This fully reflects a cautious yet open public attitude towards a judicial training pathway and provides a sufficient public-opinion foundation for constructing a judicial training model suited to Hong Kong.

Mr Ronny Tong Ka-wah, GBS, KC, SC, JP, Director of POD Research Institute, pointed out: “The shortage of judges is an inevitable consequence of Hong Kong’s socio-economic development in recent decades. Over the past twenty to thirty years, senior barristers and solicitors have been in high demand in the commercial sector and are scarce commodities. The top cohort of peers often earns two to three times the remuneration of judges of equivalent rank. It is therefore contrary to common sense for the judiciary to expect these elite practitioners to transfer to judicial office.”

On the candidates who would participate in training, Mr Tong continued: “At present, career pathways for Hong Kong law graduates are relatively narrow. It is generally difficult to secure pupillage or training contracts, and entering the legal profession is not easy. Many graduates possess potential and could become outstanding legal and judicial talent, yet limited entry channels lead them ultimately to apply for Administrative Officer posts, resulting in talent mismatch and waste of human resources. This study aims to open more opportunities for law graduates to develop within the legal profession. The recommendations would both make good use of legal expertise and enrich Hong Kong’s legal talent reserve—a win-win solution.”

The full report and related recommendations are available at: https://podresearch.hk/articles/7

Media Enquiries

Daphne Choi, General Manager

Tel: 2509 3131

Email: daphnechoi@podresearch.hk

Reference documents

• Ten Key Recommendations for Hong Kong’s Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address

• Developing a Hong Kong-Compatible Career Judge System as a Judicial Talent Pipeline — A Qualitative and Quantitative Research Report on Judge Shortage, Legal Talent Training and the Maintenance of the Rule of Law