The Government will increase land supply on all fronts to meet Hong Kong's housing, economic and social development needs.
Delivering his 2017-18 Budget today, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the Government will supply 94,500 public housing units from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
There will be 71,800 public rental housing units and 22,600 subsidised sale flats.
On private housing, the 2017-18 Land Sale Programme comprises 28 residential sites capable of providing 19,000 units.
Together with railway property and redevelopment projects, potential private housing land supply in 2017-18 will be about 32,000 units.
On commercial supply, the Government will put three commercial/business sites and one hotel site up for sale, providing 172,000 square metres of floor area and 550 hotel rooms.
Mr Chan said land and manpower are two major constraints on Hong Kong's economic growth.
"To drive the diversified development of a knowledge-based economy and open up new markets, we need to attract talents with vision, cross-cultural competence and a firm grasp of international affairs."
The Government will implement the free quality kindergarten education policy from the 2017-18 school year, increasing its financial commitment to pre-primary education by $2.7 billion annually.
It will also regularise the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors from the 2018-19 academic year to subsidise students to undertake designated self-financing undergraduate programmes.
The number of subsidised places will increase from 1,000 per cohort to 3,000.
The total commitment will be will be $850 million per year, benefiting 13,000 students annually.
To promote life-long learning and maintain a quality workforce, the Government will inject an additional $1.5 billion into the Continuing Education Fund in 2017-18.
The Budget also proposed raising the tax deduction ceiling for self-education expenses from $80,000 to $100,000.
On nurturing young people, in 2017-18 it will inject $200 million into the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship to support local students who excel in areas other than academic performance.
It will also allocate an additional $100 million to expand the International Youth Exchange Programme.
