Three ways Hong Kong can unleash its greatest potential – human capital

Faced with an ageing population and a growing demographic imbalance, the city must break away from traditional life planning

When we reimagine longevity as ‘younger for longer’, not ‘older for longer’, we can allow ‘younger’ people to continue learning and contributing to the economy

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Commuters in masks at Hong Kong MTR station on April 9, 2020. The city needs a new, holistic strategy to maintain a competitive workforce. Photo: May Tse

Wai-Hong TangandNeville Lai

Published: 10:30am, 16 Oct 2021

Human capital remains indispensable to Hong Kong. In the World Bank’s Human Capital Index 2020, which gauges the productivity of the next generation of workers, Hong Kong ranks second out of 174 economies – behind only Singapore.

Yet, while it is certainly a testament to Hong Kong’s health care and standard of living that the city has the world’s highest life expectancy, the sustainability of an ageing workforce is posing a serious challenge to its future prosperity and stability.

According to projections by the Elderly Commission, Hong Kong’s senior population aged 65 and over will increase rapidly, from 15.3 per cent of the total population in 2015 to 30.6 per cent by 2043, and 35.9 per cent by 2064. Research by Our Hong Kong Foundation finds that the median age of the population will hit 51 by 2064, with a dependency ratio of 567 older people to 1,000 of working age.

Faced with an ageing population and a growing demographic imbalance, Hong Kong needs to formulate a new, holistic strategy to maintain a competitive workforce.