On 26 February 2025, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, delivered the 2025–26 Financial Budget. As a key document in the blueprint for governance by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, it outlines the government’s ambitious plans for the future, encompassing numerous areas such as public services, infrastructure projects, and social welfare, with extensive content. To uncover the insights hidden within the Financial Budget, and to identify which parts of Hong Kong are regarded as focal points for future development, Academia Centrum conducted a textual analysis, tallying keyword frequencies, and produced a word cloud data visualisation based on the relevant results.
Excluding ‘Hong Kong’ itself, the 2025–26 Budget Speech mentioned 38 place names, many of which are located within the Northern Metropolis and its adjacent waters, with their occurrences accounting for over 50% of the total mentions of all place names. This to some extent reflects that northern Hong Kong is seen as the ‘next big thing’ for future development, rather than cramming the majority of population and industrial activities along the shores of Victoria Harbour. The term ‘Northern Metropolis’ alone appeared 15 times in the speech, making it the most frequently mentioned place name. Closely following were locations in Yuen Long District: ‘Hung Shui Kiu’ and ‘Ha Tsuen’ appeared 7 and 6 times respectively, while ‘Yuen Long’ itself appeared 4 times. This seems to indicate an intention to adopt an ‘easy first, difficult later’ strategy, leveraging the existing development foundations in the Yuen Long, Hung Shui Kiu, and Ha Tsuen areas to rapidly transform the district into a ‘hub for high-end professional services and logistics’, achieving initial results in a relatively short time. As for ‘Lok Ma Chau Loop’ and ‘San Tin’, situated in the ‘innovation and technology zone’, they appeared 6 and 5 times respectively.
In contrast, individual places within the Victoria Harbour Metropolis were mentioned less frequently, with the vast majority of place names appearing only once or twice in the speech. Perhaps ‘Cyberport’ and ‘Kai Tak’ are exceptions, mentioned 6 and 5 times respectively, which can rival some locations in the Northern Metropolis. This is because both play significant roles in Hong Kong’s future development strategy—the former is seen as a base for stimulating technological innovation and nurturing talent, while the latter is regarded as a new development area with immense potential. Outside the northern and southern metropolises, the most notable is perhaps Hong Kong International Airport, with the term ‘airport’ appearing as many as 7 times in the speech’s body! The Hong Kong Airport Authority hopes to utilise this international aviation transport hub, located on the ‘Western Economic Corridor’, to develop—centred on the aviation industry—a new highlight on the airport island and adjacent land and waters, integrating high-end commerce, arts, tourism, and leisure activities.