Hong Kong government’s KPIs insufficient to measure qualitative progress: experts

The Hong Kong government’s key performance indicators alone are insufficient to measure governance and alternative measures are necessary to gauge qualitative issues, an economist and a human resources expert have said despite the city leader doubling down on setting the targets.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday reiterated the strengths of setting key performance indicators (KPIs) for various departments and bureaus in his annual policy blueprint, adding that it was acceptable that more time was needed for six of the 150 KPIs set last year to be met.

“[The] purpose of setting all these indicators [is] to ensure that we produce the result we want. [Also,] if there are situations where we can produce even better results, and some time may be taken to ensure that, I think that is [reasonable],” he said.

In the policy address released last Wednesday, the six KPIs that had not been completed on time included announcing the action plan for developing cruise tourism in the first half of this year, and introducing a bill to regulate the handling of recyclables in residential buildings.